We like to think of ourselves as humane,animal-loving beings.Gratuituos cruelty to animals is anathema to most "civilised" human beings.How would we react if meerkats were being bred and slaughtered for their coats or skin? we can imagine the outcry.
A farm dedicated to breeding and then slaughtering elephants for their tusks would be universally rejected as repugnant.A facility that bred and killed tigers to manufacture coats would be regarded as odious.
However,an endangered species,renowned for its beauty is being bred and cruelly slaughtered in such farms in most civilised countries.The chinchilla,a critically endangered rodent, native to South America(where it is now almost extinct) has been farmed since 1920 for its fur.The founder of fur farming,Chapman, stole 12 chinchillas from the Andes Mountains in the 1920s to breed for their fur.All chinchillas alive today in captivity are descendants of these 12 animals.
It beggars belief that such extermination of an endangered species,renowned for its incredible beauty is tolerated.An entire species undergoing its own holocaust to placate human vanity.
Chinchillas bred on fur farms are killed with great cruelty.They are electrocuted,with an electric cable attached to their genitals at one end and ears at the other.Undercover investigations by the animal welfare charity PETA have revealed footage of chinchillas writhing in pain for five to ten minutes.It would seem to take a particularly cruel,sociopathic personality to inflict such suffering on a beautiful,small animal.Most animal lovers would squirm at such sadistic cruelty.Even more alarming is that Chinchillas are being exported to China where along with rabbits and foxes thay are skinned alive.Footage by PETA and other charities have disclosed horrific levels of cruelty on Chinese fur farms.
A free market without morality,capitalism without ethics and the worship of profit without scruples is the basis for all this.In the USA for example,there is no protection against cruelty for any farm animal,whether reared for food or fur.This same unadulterated greed caused slavery,human trafficking and drug cartels.These are all illicit activities today.With a raising of popular consciousness about the chinchilla and the holocaust perpetrated on it-one day this endangered species will be free from such an undeserved fate.
