I bet you thought that trapping and killing beavers had ended long ago, but you would be wrong. Beaver fur is still used to make felt. It is primarily used to make Stetson hats (cowboy hats) and some Women’s Hats. The fur makes the hats water repellent. With the prices of the hats in excess of $300 each it does not look like the killing of beavers for their fur will end soon.
So how many beavers have to die for one hat? It takes about 4 pounds of fur to make one hat so it would depend on the size of the beaver.
I did a brief search of the internet and could not find any place that bred and raised beavers for the fur trade so I can only assume that wild beavers were still being trapped.
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For those of you who think of deer as shy and nonaggressive then you have never lived in deer country. I have been only a few feet away from one of my own dogs that got attacked by a deer. At the time I did not know that she had a very small fawn nearby and she was being protective.
To show you what a deer can do and as a warning to stay away from them and keep your pets away from them when they have a fawn in the area, I found this video which will act as a warning. The people filming the video have no idea what the mother deer is capable of until after they filmed it.
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This has got to be on of my biggest beefs with city folk who move into the houses for rent way out here in the country. They move in and visit the local feed store and say “how cute” to the day old chicks that are for sale. They get the idea that they can have fresh eggs when the chickens get older.
Now here is what they don’t understand: we live in the foothills where we have coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats and other assorted predators. They get the foolish idea that they can let the chickens free range (otherwise known as letting them wander all over the place including all the neighbors properties) because keeping them in a chicken coop is cruel. Then they complain to their neighbors that their chickens are missing. Us country folk just shake our heads in disbelief.
The latest nut job of a neighbor let her broody mother hen free range on my property (they have 20 acres of their own) with at least 20 chicks around her. She told me that she thinks one of my barn cats got 2 of her chicks since she can’t find them. Sorry lady but keep your chickens off of my property and penned up so they don’t go “missing.”
Too bad common sense did not go along with the farm they rented. Welcome to the country folks, get educated.
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