[icarus]

Not that I condone the unnecessarily cruel and inhumane ways these animals are processed in China, but I am sure the same thing was going on in Canada for a couple hundred years.

Our country was explored, settled, and partially populated in the name of fur. Beaver pelts were all the rage in Europe and in the Hudson's Bay Company outposts here they were the only currency. There were no shops, so pelts were traded for supplies. I am sure they didn't take any more care of the beavers than was needed (although I imagine they would have probably eaten some of the animal). I believe a sustainable beaver population in Canada was actually threatened at one time, but then beaver hats went out of fashion in Europe and the industry dried up.

Also let's not forget how white Europeans skinned buffalo alive, cut their tongues out, and left them to rot on this very land.

I guess we can point at the Chinese and say treat your animals better, profits aren't everything, but to what extent can we say these things when the settlement of our country was fueled by the desire for fur? I can see the Chinese saying the same thing as they say when we try to impose emission targets on them: "you certainly didn't have any concerns about it until you became developed, so let us do just as you did until we get to that point as well".