RCMP gets coyote ugly in its fur request

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Editor:

The RCMP has recently called for 2,000 strips of coyote fur with which to line their hats.

Apparently, the RCMP has not yet had its fill of negative publicity.

If recent issues regarding our national police force haven’t been enough to convince us it is stuck in some 1950s twilight zone, this will surely do it.

The RCMP continues to cling blindly and stubbornly to its old traditions and mentalities, in this instance to its objectification of animals.

Is the force not aware that, over the past several decades, along with the de-objectification of women, people in the developed world have come to understand animals are sentient creatures in their own right, that humans do not have the right to inflict suffering on them or cause their unnatural death?

Yet the RCMP is insisting countless animals endure death by strangulation so Mounties can have a fur trim on their hats.

I ask each and every RCMP member to take a moment and imagine what it would feel like to be strangled to death.

If someone were to inform them that death by strangulation is humane, would that make it better for them?

That is how the RCMP is defending the brutal, violent killing of these coyotes.

I can assure them, however, that whatever it feels like for a human to be strangled, it feels exactly the same for any other living creature.

The onus is on each and every aware, conscious RCMP member to demand the exclusion of animal fur from their uniforms. If the members do not speak up, what does that tell us?

They need not worry about their heads being cold.

Contrary to the RCMP’s statement that fur surpasses any synthetic materials available in meeting extreme weather conditions, I quickly found numerous websites retailing extreme weather gear, one of which sells an Expedition Arctic Thermal Hat that is earth-friendly, good to -73 C and sells for $69.99 each.

If I can find such a suitable alternative that quickly and easily, surely the RCMP can, too.

My respect for the RCMP has been on a downslide and, if it does not change its mentality regarding this issue, any remaining respect I have for the force will be gone.

Sandi Mikuse

Advocates for Urban Wildlife

Kamloops