The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) Fur Free Europe has closed earlier than its official deadline thanks to a record number of signatures collected. In less than ten months 1.6 million citizens signed to end this cruel practice, sending a strong message to the European Commission (EC).

Fur Free Europe was launched in May 2022 by Eurogroup for Animals and received the support of more than eighty organisations from all around Europe. The ECI calls for a ban on fur farming and on the placement of farmed fur products on the European market.

Successful from the outset, Fur Free Europe collected 50,000 signatures on its launch day and now, 2 and a half months before its official closing deadline, over 1.6 million signatures have been collected, offering a safe margin for the achievement of 1 million validated signatures. The decision to close the ECI earlier has been taken due to the potential impact that it could have on the upcoming revision of the EU animal welfare legislation, as part of the EC’s Farm to Fork Strategy. By the end of 2023, the EC will publish a proposal aimed at improving the EU’s animal welfare legislation to align it with the latest scientific evidence.

Science has clearly shown that this is not possible to improve welfare standards on fur farms. Consequently, a ban on fur farming should be included in the proposal. Moreover, since imports of animal products should follow EU standards, the ECI also calls for a ban on placing farmed fur products on the European market. Indeed, the organisers didn’t want to export cruelty to third countries but aimed to definitively end the suffering created by the fur industry in Europe.