Fur is a non-essential luxury item. An large majority of the population does not support causing suffering and killing animals for a trivial reason as fashion. The publicʼs long-standing opposition to fur farming and our changed ethical perception of animals have led an increasing number of countries to legislate against fur farming in recent years. Opinion polls from across the globe have consistently demonstrated that the majority of citizens consider breeding animals for fur unacceptable.
Most fur sold globally is from farmed animals (at least 85%), as mink, foxes, raccoon dogs, rabbits and chinchillas. Worldwide each year more than 100 million animals are killed on fur farms after short and miserable lives in small wire mesh battery cages, only for fashion.
Keeping wild predators in small cages results in numerous serious stress-related health problems – as infected wounds, missing limbs, cannibalism and stereotypical behaviour. To preserve the pelts animals on fur farms or killed by cruel methods as gassing, neck-breaking, anal electrocution and sometimes skinning alive.
Welfare problems of battery cages
Mink and foxes, the main species of animals reared in fur factory farms, are active wide-ranging carnivores and inherently unsuitable to be kept in wire mesh battery cages.
The behavioural needs of animals kept for fur cannot be met on fur farms
- Animals kept for fur have been subjected to relatively little active selection for tameness and adaptability to captive environments.[1]
- Mink and foxes are highly inquisitive and wide-roaming predatory animals
- The battery cage system deprives animals from the opportunity to express their species-specific behaviour
