Every year, around 100 million animals are raised and killed for their fur. Over 95% of fur sold globally, comes from farmed animals, such as mink, foxes, raccoon dogs, rabbits and chinchillas. On fur factory farms, animals spend their entire lives in cramped battery cages, deprived of the ability to engage in natural behaviours.

Keeping wide-ranging predatory animals in small cages causes severe animal welfare problems – such as self-mutilation and infected wounds.

Unlike other farmed species, animals bred for fur are essentially wild animals, which have undergone only a very limited domestication process. The active selection of animals on fur farms is mainly focused on fur quality and very little on tameness and adaptability to captive environments.

‘Fear of humans in the undomesticated animals used by the fur industry makes them fundamentally unsuitable for farming.’

The recommendations (2001) of the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare (SCAHAW) state correspondingly:

‘In comparison with other farm animals, species farmed for their fur have been subjected to relatively little active selection except with respect to fur characteristics.’

The confinement in tiny battery cages on fur farms prevents animals from expressing their basic natural behaviours, such as running and hunting for food. The stress of the caging conditions and fear of humans cause animals kept for fur to exhibit a high number of stress-related welfare problems.

Numerous scientific reports have indicated that severe health problems are inherent to fur production and that animals on all fur farms have been found to exhibit physical and behavioral abnormalities as:

‘…infected wounds, missing limbs from biting incidents, eye infections, bent feet, mouth deformities, self-mutilation, cannibalism of dead siblings or offspring and other stress-related stereotypical behaviour.’

Stereotypical behavior, as a result of stress, occurs on all fur farms and is expressed as pacing along the cage wall, repetitive circling or nodding of the head.

Mink are semi-aquatic and highly evolved physiologically to hold their breath. They are therefore prone to hypoxia, which means they can suffer significantly during gassing.

‘Killing mink with CO2 should be avoided, and humane methods developed.’ (SCAHAW, 2001)

Laws to prohibit the breeding and killing of animals for fur is becoming increasingly widespread in Europe. Over 15 European countries have introduced legislation to ban or phase out fur farming, including the UK (2003), The Netherlands (2021), Serbia (2019), Czech Republic (2019), Norway (2025) and Belgium (2019). In these countries animal welfare concerns have been given priority over the fur industry’s interests.