Fur farming fails to meet animals’ basic welfare needs
A major report by scientists at the European Food Safety Authority, written for the European Commission, has shown that fur farming across the European Union fails to meet basic animal welfare needs for mink, foxes, raccoon dogs and chinchillas. Throughout the report, the experts conclude that the suffering ‘cannot be prevented or substantially mitigated’ in current fur farming systems.
Among key animal welfare problems in current fur farming systems, the report lists:
- Cages of insufficient size and complexity with “barren conditions” which “severely restrict movement” in addition to inappropriate wire- based flooring.
- Sensory under stimulation and overstimulation, for different species, leading to chronic boredom and/or stress.
- Inability to exhibit key behaviors including playing, exploring, foraging, digging, jumping or chewing and, for chinchillas, access to sand for bathing, for mink, access to open water for swimming.
- Stress, aggression and injury, including infanticide and cannibalism, caused by lack of space and/or overcrowding and/or inappropriate group housing (e.g. fighting with cage mates and fur chewing behaviors) and/or competition for resources.
- Fear and stress from lack of habituation to humans and injuries caused by catching animals with neck tongs, including during forced insemination.
- Stereotypical behaviors such as repetitive pacing and head bobbing.
- Lameness and bowed legs / leg weakness.
- Gut disorders and inappropriate diet; prolonged hunger and overfeeding in different scenarios.
The current fur farming systems are used by fur farms across Europe, including those that are claimed to be “certified” or “high-welfare” farms. This leaves serious questions around the future of the fur trade and some major retailers’ reliance on so-called fur certification schemes.
Fur trade investigations
Humane World for Animals has carried out undercover investigations around the world to reveal the realities of the fur trade, we have documented many of the problems outlined above showing that no matter where the fur comes from, animal suffering is constant.
Finland
One of the largest fur farming counties in Europe, Finland’s fur trade boasts of "high welfare" and states that almost 100% of its fox fur farms are certified by the SAGA scheme (including the WelFur protocol). The country has hundreds of fur farms where millions of mink, raccoon dogs and both arctic and red foxes are bred and killed for their fur each year. Our investigations, often in partnership with Finnish animal protection organization Oikeutta Eläimille, have revealed obese “monster foxes” with unnaturally excessive skin folds from selective breeding to increase their fur yield, and mink with raw open wounds engaged in fighting with cage mates and even cannibalism.
Kristo Muurimaa/Oikeutta Elaimille
End cruel and deadly fur farming worldwide!
Millions of foxes, mink, raccoon dogs and chinchillas spend their entire lives trapped in tiny wire cages before being killed and skinned for so-called fashion.
China
As the largest supplier of fur pelts in the world, fur farms in China confine millions of foxes, raccoon dogs and mink in tiny cages each year. Investigations have found animals displaying stereotypical behaviors, pacing around their dirty, decrepit cages, and housed directly above their own feces. Killing methods have included ineptly administered electrocution causing paralysis, bludgeoning, and even animals skinned alive. Disturbing evidence has also been uncovered of meat from the slaughtered farm animals being sold to local restaurants for human consumption.
Romania
Our undercover investigators filmed the first ever expose of chinchilla fur farms in Romania, documenting the terrible conditions these animals were subjected to for their fur. Confined in small, filthy, wire mesh cages stacked three or four on top of each other, row upon row, in windowless “farm” rooms, the animals were housed directly above piles of excrement accumulating under each cage. Baby chinchillas struggled to walk on the wire cage floor, their legs slipping through the mesh, and adult chinchillas were filmed frantically chewing at the bars.
United States
As part of our mission to rescue hundreds of foxes, raccoons and coyotes from a fur and urine farms in Ohio, we documented the terrible conditions in which these animals were housed, kept in filthy wire-bottomed cages with little to no protection from the frigid condition. Some of the animals were missing toes, ears, tails and limbs, others displayed stereotypical behavior, circling and pacing repetitively in their tiny cages.
A joint investigation into the trapping industry revealed terrible suffering of animals caught in archaic traps, including raccoons that were bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat, a fox who had struggled so hard to free himself from a leghold trap that his leg had snapped clean through, and the bloody toe of a coyote, torn-off and left in the jaws of the trap during the animal’s escape.
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Fur fashion is outdated and completely unnecessary.
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Kristo Muurimaa/Oikeutta eläimille