Fur Farming

Every year, around 100 million animals are raised and killed for their fur.

The main animals used are mink, foxes, raccoon dogs, rabbits, cats and chinchillas.

Roughly 85% of the fur industry’s skins come from farmed animals.

According to a United Nations report,

approximately one billion rabbits are killed each year

so that their fur can be used in clothing or for lures in fly fishing or trim on craft items.

China, as well as Italy and Spain, are the main players.

Unlike mink and foxes and other fur-bearing animals raised for their fur, rabbit meat is now big business in certain parts of the world.

IRELAND

Legislation to ban the farming of fur-bearing animals is due to be passed by the legislature in 2022.

While the banning of fur farming is to be welcomed, it needs to be accompanied by a ban of the importation and sale of all fur products.

Fur farming is banned in fourteen EU countries.

On fur farms, animals spend their entire lives in small, wire cages which are so small the animals can only take a few steps in any direction. Many go insane and behave in a demented manner all day long, circling and pacing in a frantic manner. Parasites and

disease are commonplace. Killing methods vary around the world. A common method is to electrocute the

animal by attaching clamps to its mouths and anus (sometimes rods are inserted into the anus). Another method is to poison the animal with strychnine. This paralyzes their muscles causing them to suffocate. Breaking the neck is another method used. They can also be gassed to death by either carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide.

Mink in the wild live near water and are excellent swimmers, spending a considerable amount of their time in and out of the water. They have a range of about 2 km along rivers.

Silver foxes travel great distances in the wild. They can run fast and are strong swimmers. They dig their own dens or sometimes use the dens of other animals. Arctic foxes roam across a vast territory of around 30 square kilometres, frequently covering 10 to 20 km in a day. They are fast runners and strong swimmers.

They are very solitary animals.

Fur farms are extremely damaging to the environment, producing vast volumes of faeces.

A dangerous component of this waste is phosphorus, which pollutes nearby rivers and streams.

After an animal has been slaughtered, his or her skin is treated with toxic chemicals to keep it from rotting and decomposing in the buyer’s closet. According to The World Bank,

the hazardous process of fur dressing is so problematic that

the fur industry is now ranked as one of the world’s five worst industries for toxic-metal pollution.

Although most animals killed for their fur are raised on fur farms, millions of raccoons, coyotes, bobcats,

beavers, and other fur-bearing animals are killed every year by trappers.

The steel-jaw trap, which the American Veterinary Medical Association calls inhumane, is the most widely used trap. It’s been banned by the European Union and a growing number of U.S. states.