Has anyone noticed a commotion outside the NRML store in Westboro?
You can thank the Animal Defence League(ADL) for that commotion!
Last week I received a very disheartening letter from a shop owner on Richmond Road in Westboro, who owns a store very close to the NRML store.
In case you didn’t know what the ADL’s beef(pun intended) is with NRML, the store happens to sell the popular Canada Goose parkas which happen to have coyote fur trim along the hood.
The Animal Defence league is protesting NRML for carrying this product, and have even start a petition online. According to the ADL, “Animals killed for fur are trapped, skinned alive, and anally electrocuted. They encourage the public to sign a petition to stop this cruelty.
The fact of the matter is we have a real coyote population control issue in Canada which the ADL evidently is unaware of.
Perhaps the ADL might do some ‘Googling’ to understand the difficulty conservationists have in managing this predator population, especially the Urban coyotes of this country.
But noooo, the ADL would rather hassle innocent business owners as a way of ‘furthering their cause’ in protecting animals from the dreaded fur industry.
(Speaking of Google, perhaps the ADL might also consider researching the FUR INDUSTRY in this country while they are educating themselves on coyotes.)
The shop owners along Richmond Road have tried reasoning with these people too but to no avail.
Instead the Shop owners were verbally attacked!
They called the police repeatedly but were told that law enforcement couldn’t do anything because these protestors have a permit to demonstrate issued by the City of Ottawa, therefore they are not breaking any criminal laws.
What???
Oh yes, and police also explained that the ADL’s right to protest – as covered in the Charter of Rights & Freedoms – supersedes any by-law or criminal law.
The group has been protesting the NRML store every Saturday & Sunday for almost 1 year, and I’m told they’ve even added bullhorns to their arsenal.
The group has also been seen writing derogatory material in chalk in front of the NRML store, and in front of other stores down the street.
How can one group of ignorant, misguided individuals systematically run small business owners into the ground based on their own twisted ‘perceived animal cruelty’?
You know why?
Because not only do we LET IT HAPPEN, by doing nothing to stop it we are essentially furthering their cause against the trapping industry, and conservation as a whole!
I feel for these business owners who are simply trying to make a living and because one of their products happens to have sustainable, ethically harvested, fur on it it’s a problem?
The real problem here in my opinion is ignorance, of which the ADL evidently wrote the book on.
Outdoorsguy
