Hamburg, November 10, 2020 – – Millions of mink are currently being killed in Denmark and burned together with their fur to prevent the mutated corona pathogen from spreading further. To protect humans and animals, the international animal welfare foundation calls for an end to fur farming.
Commented on this Thomas Pietsch, wildlife and fur expert at :
“The global headlines are shocking: Denmark plans to kill 17 million mink because they are infected with a new mutation of the coronavirus that has already been transmitted to humans. These plans are currently on hold because the government lacks the necessary parliamentary majority for an emergency law to kill the animals. Around the world, around 100 million mink, raccoon dogs and foxes are killed every year for their fur. Denmark is considered the second largest fur producer after China and operates more than 1,300 mink farms. Now there have been COVID-19 outbreaks on more than 160 fur farms in the Scandinavian country and numerous suspected cases on other farms. The first 1.9 million mink from the total Danish stock have already been killed. A huge danger for people, an enormous agony for the animals. Mink normally live in the wild, but on fur farms they are confined to tight wire cages. In concrete terms, each animal has 0.255 m² available. Mink are gassed when they are around eight months old, i.e. still young animals, and their fur is then removed.
The Danish authorities’ killing plans are a major blow to the local mink industry, one of the largest in the world. In fact, most of the animals would have been killed for the annual fur harvest for the fashion industry in the next few weeks anyway. Now the whole world is learning about the cruelty to animals on the fur farms, and at best the current crisis marks the beginning of the end, at least for the European fur industry.
Fur farming is now legally prohibited in more than a dozen European countries, for example in Austria, Great Britain and the Czech Republic. Other countries, such as Germany and Switzerland, have enacted stricter regulations that make fur farming economically unviable. After the massive COVID-19 outbreaks on mink farms, the Netherlands announced the early end of fur farms in August 2020; by March 1, 2021, all mink breeders must cease operations. In September 2020, France also decided to end its mink farms. In many other European countries, ban regulations are currently the subject of political discussion.
Fur is a completely unnecessary luxury item. In order to protect the public and prevent animal suffering, calls on the EU Commission to urge member states to end fur farming.
The fur industry is a cruel and, as you can see, dangerous business – not only for the animals but also for the people. For public health and of course for the protection of animals, fur farming must be banned as soon as possible. Otherwise it is not unrealistic that the next pandemic will come from an EU country.”
Thomas Pietsch is available for interviews and questions.
Further information on the subject of fur and animal welfare can be found here.