Fox Thieves Caught

Thousands of sharp-nosed, furry little animals slept more safely in snug pens throughout the eastern U. S. when, last week, one Alfred Findlay and one John Merritt were caught by police, who believe them the most enterprising and systematic silver fox thieves in the land. They will be charged with raiding the Hampshire silver black fox farm in Williamsburg, Mass. From other farms in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine they are believed to have stolen not less than $100,000 worth of pelts--slipping into the pens by night with flashlights, clubbing the wide-eyed little animals where they crouched against the side wire, lugging the limp carcasses away in sacks to skin them in the woods, peddling the pelts at half price (about $250 instead of $500, prime) to uninquisitive Manhattan jobbers.

Of the 11,000-silver fox farms in the world, many are in England, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Russia. But most successful silver fox farming is done in the U. S. and in Canada, where it was started in 1879 by young Charlie Dalton, now Sir Charles Dalton, 80, onetime Cabinet Minister of Prince Edward Island Government. On Prince Edward Island, off the coast of New Brunswick, Charlie Dalton lived near Nail Pond, a wild region abounding in game. Like all oldtime fox trappers, Charlie Dalton was anxious to catch a "nigger"--not a black fox but a "red" fox preternaturally dark by some accident of heredity. Having caught several such, he bought three pairs from other trappers. Instead of selling their skins for a proportionately large profit, Charlie Dalton bred them, started the first known silver fox farm for breeding purposes and the Dalton strain from which the best captive silver foxes are descended.

The foxes on the Dalton farm were troubled by few of the worries that beset fox-farmers now, such as parasites, ear mites, worm trouble, tailmites, thieves. They were killed, usually late in December, by the weight of a man's foot placed over the lungs or heart so as to leave no blood stains on the fur. Their skins were sold at fabulous prices until fur dealers in Prince Edward Island investigated, bought Charlie Dalton's business and 20 pairs of Charlie Dalton's foxes for $500,000. The highest price ever paid for a fox skin was $2,819 paid in 1911 for a black pelt from Dalton's ranch.

Dyers can now make a red fox fur look almost exactly like a genuine black one, once more valuable than silver. There is no way at present to duplicate the coat of a silver fox, whose long guard hair is blue for two inches closest to the body, black for the next half inch, white the outside half-inch and tipped with black. Dalton's foxes were fed on horsemeat, bread and milk, with occasional young calves. Modern ranch-bred silver foxes are fed cow's milk, with cream added for fat content when first weaned. Soon afterward they get eggs, liver, tripe or heart. Adult foxes are permitted to gobble whole meat, shredded wheat, fish, orange juice, tomato juice, turnips, spinach, porridge, cod-liver oil and yeast.

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