A deadly trade

Malcolm Smith’s article A Hatful of Horrors (February), which highlighted the use of feathers from exotic birds for the millinery trade of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was heartbreaking. It happened just a few generations ago and many of us will have had great-grandparents who wore feathered hats or perhaps were some way involved in the colossal trade in wild birds or their plumes.

The image of thousands of ostrich feathers in the Cutler Street warehouses was a stark reminder of the past wrongs inflicted on the natural world by our forefathers. While researching my family history, I discovered that my great-greatgrandfather and his son, my great-grandfather, who were merchants, regularly sold feathers from exotic birds at their auctions in the Commercial Sale Rooms in Mincing Lane during the second half of the 19th century. As Malcolm Smith commented, how did they justify the bird killings? I would love to be a time traveller to have that conversation with them.

Although this fashion ended after the First World War, the trade in exotic birds and other wildlife parts sadly still persists in other forms today.

Moira Walshe, Suffolk