We hunters have long felt the sting from anti-hunters who are aided by a liberal media that likes to publicize some bimbo who insists she's rather go naked that wear fur, or the headlines-grabbing incidents of blood-red paint being splashed on some innocent citizen's fur coat.

Mostly we simply take the abuse because there has been too little effort to promote the positive values of hunting or trapping for fur.

Now there is, with a new campaign from the Fur Council of Canada, called "Fur Is Green."

I invite you to check their website (www.furcouncil.com) and spend some time looking at the various links.  There you'll find accurate information about the economic, social and ecological value of the fur trade, which includes you, the hunter, as the initial link.

For example you'll learn that fur is a renewable resource.  All species produce more than the land can support to maturity.  The excess must die one way or another, and the fur industry is only one factor in the harvesting of that annual production.  Our fur animals are like money in the bank, with the hunter and trapper taking only the "interest" while leaving the "principle" to produce next year's crop.  Wildlife biologists and officials, through harvest quotas and controlled hunting, regulate the annual take so there is a sufficient breeding population to sustain the species.

By contrast, faux (fake) furs are made from petrochemicals, which are not renewable.

Natural fur is also organic, and will eventually break down when its service years are over.  By comparison, faux fur is not biodegradable, and like other plastics does not break down easily.  Millions of tons of these cheap, artificial, disposable garments will remain in garbage dumps for centuries.

There is much more on that website, and I encourage you to read it so you'll be able to educate yourself against the attacks of the anti-hunters.

To learn more about these animal-rights hypocrites, I especially urge you to study the link www.PetaKillsAnimals.com, where you'll find PETA exposed for the fraud they are.  The acronym PETA officially stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, although for years I've thought a better name would be Pet Execution and Torching Association, for over 90% of the unwanted pets they take in are killed, and most are cremated.

A common scenario shows some little old lady, who can no longer care for her pets, giving her Fluffy and Fido to PETA, thinking that the "Ethical" in PETA's name meant something.  That poor, elderly, uninformed lady might even donate money to such a deserving, "ethical" association.  What the lady never learns is that her beloved pets are probably executed and the money she donated does not go to helping unwanted pets, but mainly goes toward more anti-hunting and other animal-rights propaganda and lawsuits.

Despite the support of many of Hollywood's airheads and their supporting liberal press, the truth about PETA is slowly being exposed.  In a full-page advertisement in Variety, the entertainment industry trade magazine, the Center for Consumer Freedom criticized the celebrity supporters of PETA for endorsing the animal rights group even as it kills thousands of animals in its care.