Industry facts
The Fur Farming Economic Sector
About 80-85% of fur produced in the world comes from fur farms, the rest from animals caught in the wild. Each year huge numbers of animals are killed on fur farms - about 57 million minks and foxes were killed in 2011, for example. Minks are the animals farmed in greatest numbers. Other animals kept in captivity and slaughtered are foxes, chinchillas, racoon dogs, rabbits and others - in some countries the list includes dogs and cats. The country which farms minks in greatest numbers is Denmark (15 million mink pelts in 2011), while foxes are farmed in greatest numbers in Finland (1.8 million fox pelts in 2011).
Another major producer is China - though fur farmers slaughter about 12 million animals there each year, they are totally unrestricted by any welfare regulations, and the animals tend to be skinned alive. Fur sales amounted to 14 billion dollars in 2010, a significant increase compared to the 8 billion in 1999. One of the major reasons for this increase is the greater demand for fur products in Far Eastern states and Russia.
The European Fur Breeders Association claims that in 2011 it had a membership of 7200 fur breeders, and that 60 000 full time workers were employed on fur farms, where 1 million tonnes of offal from the fish and cattle farming economic sector were used for animal feed.
Fur Farming in Latvia
The Latvian Fur Breeders Association (Latvijas Zvērkopju Asociācija) claims that 400 people were employed in the sector in 2011 (less than 0.05% of the total number of people employed in the country), that exports amounted to 5.6 million lats, and that 700 000 lats were paid in revenue. 90% of the furs were sold at the Copenhagen and Helsinki fur auctions, mainly to buyers from Russia and China.
Seven fox and/or mink farms and about 25 chinchilla farms are operating in Latvia at present, 442 850 animals being registered in the first half of 2012. The lives of 350 000 minks, 9100 foxes and 3088 chinchillas were taken in the name of fashion and profit in 2011. However sad these sad statistics, the fur industry has declined in Latvia – 1,100,000 minks were slaughtered as recently as 1989 on 24 farms. At present, though, there is a threat that the reverse tendency is about to begin.
The Impact of Fur Farming on the Environment
Representatives of the fur trade are misleadingly invoking environmental concerns in an attempt to justify their method of generating income. In fact, the process of fur production causes serious environmental harm – water pollution, air pollution, significant consumption of energy, and harm arising from toxic chemicals used in the processing of skins - for example: formaldehyde, chromium, naphthalene and others. In addition, a large volume of CO2 is released. Recently, in independent studies carried out in the Netherlands, it was found that fur is the least ecologically friendly of all materials used for clothing. When 17 of the 18 relevant criteria were used to assess environmental friendliness, fur production turned out to be 2-28 times more harmful to the environment than the production of other materials used for clothing. The criteria used included toxicity, consumption of resources, contribution to climate change, degradation of the ozone layer, soil acidification, freshwater eutrophication, sea eutrophication, and others.
The Conditions of Raising Animals in Fur Farms
Fur farms cannot satisfy even the most basic natural needs of the animals which are kept there. Foxes and minks are held imprisoned in tiny wire cages, where the possibility for movement is minimal. The animals are denied instinctive behaviour, which leads to stress and frustration. This causes the animals to fall victim to mental illnesses, which manifest themselves as apathy, aimless stereotypic behaviours, aggression towards other animals and self-mutilation, as well as cannibalism. Foxes and minks are wild animals and neither increasing the size of the cages, nor their “enrichment” with wooden or bone playthings will be of much benefit to them. Taking into account the characteristics of the industry, and its drive for profit, it is simply not possible to establish acceptable conditions for the keeping of animals on these farms.
The Public Opinion Towards Fur Farming
Fur industry representatives generally prefer the defence of invoking financial and economic indicators, hoping to cover up in this way an essential truth of the industry: it is impossible to raise wild animals for fur in a humane way. As society becomes more informed about the industry, its support is rapidly diminishing. In response, fur farmers are attempting to improve their image in good time by invoking high standards of welfare and an ethical attitude towards animals. In fact, these PR tricks are simply misleading the public by hiding the inevitable suffering and agonising death of the farmed animals. The assertion that raising these animals for fur is natural is without foundation – there is nothing natural in the artificial breeding of these animals, the way they are held in tiny cages on the farms, nor in the way they are killed – the minks being suffocated with gas, while the foxes are killed with an electrocuting apparatus that is inserted in an animal’s mouth and anal orifice.
It is not surprising that more and more countries are banning fur farming for ethical reasons. Please sign the petition supporting the movement to ban fur farming in Latvia, so that this hard-hearted industry is also brought to an end here.