More than 50 million wild animals, so called because they live in freedom, are trapped or snared every year, victims of a greedy and ruthless fur trade that feeds on human vanity.

Dealer in animal torture for 53 years... claims ALF... "Cowardly"

Wellington businessman, Mr Goodman, Managing Director of Universal Fur Company for 53 years claims that the members of the Animal Liberation Front, who on 5 December 1983 drew public attention to his dubious profession... are "very cowardly".

The bright red paint splashed across the entrance to Universal Fur Company's premises symbolised the blood of fifty million animals trapped every year in a hideous trade in torture seemed far removed from the glamorous model swathed in furs in the window of the carpeted showroom.

Dressed in smart business suit, spotless shirt, collar and tie, the photograph in the Wellington Evening Post of Mr Goodman surveying the work of ALF portrays - in a word - respectability... a kindly looking man. There is no blood visible on his hands - yet the following brief glimpse into the origin of the commodity which his company sells to an indiscriminating section of the public... for profit:

Mobilise! readers are asked to decide... who is the coward?

Beavers, lynx, squirrels, wolves, arctic foxes, red foxes, muskrats, raccoons, plus countless other small "useless" animals and birds struggle for days and nights - sometimes for weeks, in the well-hidden steeljaw traps.

They scream their lives away suffering unimaginable anguish, thirst, hunger, freezing cold and exhaustion in their desperate efforts to free trapped limbs: Limbs that are numbed, blackened. Flesh tears, bones and teeth break as the animal fights on and on...

They take so long to die
Who Mr Goodman - is the coward?

"An experienced trapper can kill an animals with one blow, but even an experienced person will miss, forcing him to literally beat the animal to death. Or the trapper will smash in the animal's chest with his foot, putting a strong blow to the heart and rupturing the lungs. Most often, trappers don't carry weapons."
- Facts about Furs. Courtesy Animal Welfare Institute, U.S.

Testimony of a trapper

"One day, I saw a large beaver, - a front paw caught in a leg-hold trap. The paw was no longer covered with skin or flesh, the bone was visible, naked and white. At my approach, as the beaver struggled desperately to free itself, the bone broke with a sickening sound..."

"Beautiful soft, silky, warm, cuddly furs all shades and colours for the fashion conscious woman... step inside the Universal Fur Company's comfortable showroom:     touch them:      feel them      caress them:"

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