What’s your country’s stance on fur farming?

16 comments

1. We had fur farms until recently that were going to be phased out next year. But because the minks kept getting Covid in the early stages of the pandemic which would lead to the farms being cleared the ban was pulled forward a few years and fur farming got phased out in early 2021.

   Before that I don’t think most people knew we were still farming animals for fur tbh. I know I didn’t.

2. The last mink farm shut down in 2019.

   They aren’t banned, but the regulations are thankfully now so tight that they last ones simply shut down.

   German Google equals fur farming with mink farming, so I assume there were only mink farms here.

   I never heard of e.g. a fox farm in Germany.

   Edit: found an old article claiming there is one fox farm, but that one also speaks about the USSR, so it’s a bit dated.

3. Do people actually still buy fur? The last time I saw a fur coat in my family was my late grandma’s coat, like 20 years ago. And that wasn’t a new coat.

4. Mink farming was slowly phased out between 1975 and it’s outright ban in 2000 here.i think most people wouldn’t have any idea if it ever happened, it’s one of those things that’s just not in the public consciousness anymore.

5. I actually had to google it. It’s legal in Poland, we have around 300 fur farms (used to be way more). I’m not too happy about this, especially after learning that among the killed animals are chinchillas. My sister has 2 chinchillas, love them.

   One source said that we are the 2nd biggest exporter of fur in Europe, after Denmark, 3rd biggest in the world, but that article is pretty old so it could be no longer accurate.

6. They were all culled due to covid-19 transmissions. Brought allot of political chaos

7. It was finally banned in Ireland last year after many years of campaigning on the issue from animal rights groups and politicians on the left.

   Funnily enough one of the last fur farms to shut down, the owner was a Swedish Finn.

   Glad they’re gone, it’s a disgusting practice, Finland is behind on this one.

8. About 90% of the Swedish fur industry disappeared between 1988 and 2010 due to stricter Animal Wellfare laws.

   In 1988 it was decided that the clause that demands rights to *”natural behaviour”* also included the fur industry.

   Since 2003 it was demanded that all mink farms needed to decrease the stereotypical behaviour related to understimulation. If the behaviour wasn’t decreesed by 2010, the industry would face restrictions or a total ban.

   The industry struggled to adapt to these requirements, and all fox and chinchilla farms closed down – as well as 90% of the industry in total.

   Since 2017 all mink farms are now required to have maisonette cages.

   Today there are voices that demand a total ban of the industry, but it is not a large political item. Instead; politicians seems to be more focused on observing and advancing the animal wellfare laws.

9. In Wallonia they are banned since 2015, in Brussels since 2017 and in Flanders since 2018 (the last ones will close end of this year). I presume most people were against it

10. My family built and operated the largest fur farm in Iceland. I grew up working on the farm. We also had traditional farm animals and my mother trained horses. Growing up, I did not think about it much, but I never liked the killing. My position today is that it is such an unnecessary industry. The animals are not eaten by humans and as far as I can tell, the fur ends up in fashion clothing. My family got into the business due to generous government subsidies a few decades ago and we got out of it during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. I am glad to be rid of it.

11. Absolutely shameful that we still have this, especially now that there’s more and more cases of bird flu mutations in these farms. So what, we’re just hoping that we’re not the next country that’s the birthplace of the next Covid?

12. Banned since last year:

    https://www.lav.it/en/news/italy-bans-fur-farming

13. Sadly it seems it’s still legal in Spain, in 2020 there were 37 fur farms.

    We still allow bullfighting, so I guess banning it will take longer than I would wish

14. It was a big enough buisness here in Ireland till February of this year where they were all shut down

15. Tragically, fur farms are still legal in Sweden, despite the vast majority of people in Sweden wanting to abolish them, and many decades of campaigning from various animal welfare groups. I personally attended manifestations against the fur farms already 20 years ago, but sadly not much at all has happened politically since then. The fur farms are a really dark stain on Swedish animal welfare, and even more so as country after country in Europe has abolished them, while Sweden tragically seems to be going in the opposite direction.

    Sadly, with the current Swedish right-wing government, which doesn’t actually care about animal welfare at all, and where the fur farming lobby is very strong, an abolishment of the fur farms seems further away than in a very long time. In addition, the region with the most fur farms in Sweden, Listerlandet, also happens to be one of the biggest strongholds of the far right Sweden Democrats, which is the second largest party in the Swedish parliament and has a very strong influence on the current government.

    The only parties in the Swedish parliament that are strongly in favour of abolishing the fur farms are the Green Party and the Left Party, but they sadly have no actual power at the moment.

16. I did a quick search on Google and it says in multiple websites that there’s around 50 fur farms here in Spain (2023)

    I honestly don’t understand how this is still a thing

    Not really surprised tho… They still allow bullfighting which is also cruel as hell