From the road, nothing seemed amiss at the address of the Grand River Fur Exchange in rural Ashtabula County, Ohio: just a driveway that led to a one-story house.
But beyond, out of sight, hundreds of foxes, coyotes, raccoons, skunks and wolf-dog hybrids waited hungry, thirsty and freezing in small wire cages. Some had lost paws or more to metal traps nailed to the ground to catch animals who regularly escaped through rusty, broken mesh. Frustrated by their confinement, coyotes and foxes turned in circles, paced and swayed their heads. They looked through the bars with eyes that spoke misery. Their water was frozen, the kibble long gone, and roadkill and slaughterhouse scraps chewed to the bone.
Occasionally, the coyotes howled in a sad imitation of their song in the wild. Mostly, the more than 400 wild animals were quiet as the wind cut through their cages, which had no walls or straw for bedding and nowhere to escape the elements. Temperatures dropped to 7 degrees. Snow fell, covering the discarded bodies of dead coyotes. Foxes, coyotes, wolf-dog hybrids and skunks lay dead and frozen in their cages. Nearby, carcasses hung ready to be pelted and sold at the last fur auction in North America.
Kristo Muurimaa/Oikeutta Elaimille
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Cruelty doesn’t end easily. Markets shrink. Profits drop. Public acceptance evaporates. Still, it holds on, persisting as long as money can be made—until those involved literally die off. Before Mark Gutman, the 69-year-old owner of the Ohio business, died in late December 2024, he eked out a living selling fur and predator urine in 55-gallon drums for use by hunters in attracting carnivores and by gardeners in repelling herbivores, as well as by selling skunks and wolf-dog hybrids for pets. Humane World for Animals rescuers said the conditions they saw in January were perhaps the worst they ever encountered.
“It was like hell on Earth,” says PJ Smith, director of Humane World’s work to shut down the fur trade. “This is what a fur farm is—there’s no regulation; you get to abuse these animals any way you want.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture collects self-reported statistics on mink farms—110 in 2022—but not on fox fur farms or urine farms. It’s hard to know how many exist, Smith says.
Humane World’s Animal Rescue Team assisted the Ohio Department of Natural Resources with placing more than 300 foxes, raccoons, skunks, wolf-dog hybrids, coyotes and opossums from this farm with dozens of wildlife rehabilitators, sanctuaries and zoos. Those partners made the rescue possible and are pushing for change, says Mark Finneran, Ohio state director for Humane World.
It was like hell on Earth. This is what a fur farm is—there’s no regulation; you get to abuse these animals any way you want.”
PJ Smith, director of Humane World for Animals’ work to shut down the fur trade
Gutman paid $40 a year for a state license from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to breed and keep wildlife. A bill expected to be introduced in the Ohio legislature would establish inspections and standards of care so the state’s animal cruelty law is better enforced. Finneran hopes the stories of the surviving animals, shared by rehabbers and sanctuary staff, will get the law passed.
Lives locked away
Rows of foxes sealed into cages sat next to the metal chutes that delivered their food; below them, metal troughs collected their urine. Behind, rescuers draped a sheet of plastic to block the wind. On this day, some of the foxes would be freed from their cages by rescuers. Humane World’s Ohio state director Mark Finneran felt heartbroken as he read the dates written on the metal food chutes—the years when the animals were put into the cages. “There would be six or seven crossed out, and you realized this had been going on for generations. They never got out.”
Perched atop a nesting box, a fox hunched beneath the roof of her cage. Used for breeding, she was one of the lucky few allowed a box. Most lacked shelter—the owner kept them on wire floors to get as much urine as possible. As PJ Smith, who leads Humane World’s work to end fur farming, walked through the cages, fox after fox met his gaze. That evening, it hit him. “When I got into the shower and closed my eyes, I saw all those eyes looking at me, and I just started bawling.”
Meredith Lee/Humane World for Animals
No escape
Coyotes languished in a dark barn. In the wild, they range up to 30 miles. Confined, they paced and spun in circles. Untreated ear mites left many with infected wounds that ate away flesh. Humane World for Animals veterinary consultant Alastair MacMillan says the overcrowding, inadequate shelter and neglect these animals experienced compromised their immune systems, leaving them open to infection. This coyote was anesthetized to examine his ears, then euthanized when the severity of his wounds became clear. The necessary veterinary care would have required putting him under again and again. That treatment is not possible for wild animals, for whom every round of anesthesia is traumatic.
We felt the conditions they were in…the depravity, the unbearable cold, getting cut by jagged metal.”
Kelly Donithan, former global director of Humane World for Animals’ disaster response
Meredith Lee/Humane World for Animals
Carried to safety
Wearing gloves to protect her from claws evolved to dig for food, Kelly Donithan, then Humane World for Animals global director of animal disaster response, gently cradled a skunk. The animal, like all other skunks on the farm, had grown plump because her cage allowed little movement and no chance to root in the dirt.
Weeks later at Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation in Kendalia, Texas, one of the rescued skunks ventured into a world of scents and earth in a large enclosure. Donithan, who led the rescue, observed at the sanctuary from a distance. She says she experienced great relief, seeing the 15 skunks, six foxes and six coyotes placed at the sanctuary after seeing their suffering on the farm. “We felt the conditions they were in…the depravity, the unbearable cold, getting cut by jagged metal.” And then, 1,500 miles away from their former confinement, “the environment change was so stark.”
Without fear
A rescued fox, relaxed and seemingly unafraid, settles down to sleep at Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, where she will remain for the rest of her life—she will not die for someone to take her pelt. Sanctuary staff designed her enclosure to give her space, quiet and features that would engage her curiosity and instincts. Watching the fox, Donithan says she felt reassured the animals saved from the farm were going to be all right. “The air was fresh—the breeze—you felt the peace. And I thought, ‘She’s coping. They’re coping. They’re recovering well.’”
Watch the fur farm rescue
Follow our Animal Rescue Team as they save hundreds of animals from this fur and urine farm.
