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Maciek The Fox, Rescued From a Fur Farm In 2019

Image credits: andrewskowron

Poland is the largest fur producer in Europe and the second-largest in the world (after China). Even though the number of animals on fur farms has significantly decreased over the last few years, around 3 million minks and thousands of foxes, raccoon dogs, and chinchillas are still killed for their fur every year.

The conditions these animals have to endure are very cruel. Minks, foxes, and raccoon dogs are born in spring and spend their whole lives in metal cages, which cause injuries, deformations to their paws, and mental suffering due to the lack of possibility to exhibit natural behaviors. Foxes need to explore and dig in the ground; in nature, they live on vast territories. Minks have a very strong urge to swim and hunt in water, which they are completely deprived of on fur farms. In confinement, these animals suffer from apathy, aggression, cannibalistic attacks, and stereotypy (repetition of the same movement without any purpose or sense, like bouncing off the cage walls, digging into the metal bars, circling around). They often get eye infections or mouth diseases.

Image credits: andrewskowron

The animals are killed after only 6–8 months, in winter. Minks are gassed in chambers, which have been found ineffective many times. Their death is supposed to be quick and painless, but in reality, they often suffocate slowly, after being brutally handled by the farm workers.

Foxes and raccoon dogs are killed by electrocution. One electrode goes in their mouth, and the other in their anus. It’s as brutal as it sounds, and far from a pain-free death. Moreover, the animals are killed on farms, so other animals can hear and sense what’s going on with their companions.

This is a truly cruel industry, especially when we consider how unnecessary it is, driven by vanity and profit. However, not to be totally pessimistic, every year we observe it going down, not only in Poland but globally. A couple of years ago, just in Poland, we killed around 10 million animals for their fur. The most recent data show that in 2022 the total number of minks killed for fur in the entire world was around 17 million; in the EU – 7.6 million. Minks are the most killed animals in the fur industry, which proves once again that it is, in fact, a dying industry.

Image credits: andrewskowron

The “Fur Free Europe” initiative was very successful! In fact, it has been the most successful European Citizen’s Initiative regarding animal protection so far, which we are very pleased about. We collected more than 1.5 million signatures, which have already been verified, and now we are waiting for the meeting with the European Commission.

Like with every law change proposal, there could be different obstacles. The fur lobby has had strong influences and power in the past, and they might still have. What’s different is that the industry’s situation is much worse than it was 10, or even 5 years ago, so they are running out of arguments to keep it going. Another difficulty could be general societal issues in Europe, like high inflation, economic crisis, ongoing war. Animal protection is often considered to be less of a priority, but I personally hope that the huge success of Fur Free Europe will make it impossible for the Commission to ignore it.

Image credits: andrewskowron

The anti-fur campaign was actually the first campaign we ever started. We launched it over 10 years ago. Since then, we have conducted numerous investigations on fur farms, revealing the cruelty of this industry – like this investigation on the largest mink farm in Poland, possibly in the world, or this one, where we used hidden cameras to show the gassing of minks – we carried out interventions and rescued over 30 animals, mostly foxes (for example, Maciek, who lost his paw due to the farmer’s negligence). Raising awareness and making people aware of how fur is produced was one of our priorities, but we also wanted to actually influence the law. We have been active in this area almost since the beginning. Our activists and lawyer helped to prepare several fur ban projects, the last one was proposed in June 2022. Unfortunately, the political situation in Poland has been complicated, and the proposal was never directed for further work. Furthermore, fur farmers in Poland have held a strong position and wielded significant power in the last decade, which blocked the fur ban projects in the past.

Other than that, we try to reach more people by conducting outdoor campaigns, engaging celebrities (this spot was created to promote the Fur Free Europe initiative and has over 1.1 million views on our Instagram page). Otwarte Klatki is also a part of international coalitions and alliances, like Fur Free Alliance or Eurogroup For Animals, so our work is not only local. We provide knowledge, experience, and materials to other organizations, so that they can more easily fight for the fur ban in their countries.

Image credits: andrewskowron

Over 70% of Poles are against fur farming. Unfortunately, Polish politics is complicated. The government wanted to introduce the fur ban back in 2020, but the same proposal included other, more controversial (from the agricultural environment’s point of view) ideas, like banning ritual slaughter. It caused protests all over the country. At that time, we were in the middle of the pandemic, so there were obviously many other problems and issues that arose in society, which – once again – led to the animal protection bill being pushed to the side.

We will continue to fight for the fur ban nonetheless. Currently, the vast majority of animals raised and killed for fur are kept on large, factory farms. Smaller fox and raccoon dog farms keep shutting down because it’s no longer profitable. Big fur farmers have started to invest in other sectors of animal agriculture, like chicken or pig factory farming. It seems that everybody knows this industry has no future, but nobody wants to take responsibility to close it down once and for all.

Image credits: andrewskowron

The EU is the second-largest fur producer in the world, after China, so the fur ban would definitely impact the industry globally. Fur pelts are sold on international auctions, including those in Europe. Already, fur farmers are having trouble selling all their pelts. There are various reasons for this:

• Over 1500 fashion brands have declared not to use fur in their clothing, including famous designers like Versace, Michael Kors, and Prada.
• The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted fur production at all stages – some countries shut down fur farms entirely due to minks getting infected, others suspended it for some time, which weakened production. Millions of animals were culled because of it.
• The ongoing war in Ukraine also has an impact on fur sales.
• Climate change makes it less attractive for people to use natural fur.
• Society is becoming more aware of the conditions in which the animals live, and people no longer want to pay for cruelty.

Image credits: andrewskowron

Often people say, “if we shut the business down in the EU, the fur farms will move to China, and the animals will have it much worse, because there will be no control whatsoever.” Let me make this very clear for anyone who thinks that – in Poland, a country within the EU, we have documented animals starving, dying from thirst, having their skin ripped off, not receiving any medical treatment, being killed inefficiently, and dying in agony. I have been to one of these farms and witnessed it first hand. Let’s also remember that fur farms look the same across the globe – in Poland, Denmark, Canada, China – everywhere animals are kept in tiny cages from which they never leave.

In Europe, more than 20 countries have already banned fur farming, including the UK, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Ireland, Norway, and Latvia. Others are very close to the ban, like Lithuania and Romania. Globally, the fur ban is being considered in countries like Canada and the USA.

There is no room for compromise here – the only way to end this suffering once and for all is to ban fur farming. We hope the EU will be a proud leader in this area, and other parts of the world will follow very soon.

Foxes aren’t the only animals that are being farmed for fur

Image credits: andrewskowron

Chinchillas, minks, raccoon dogs and many other animal species suffer from it

Image credits: andrewskowron

Minks love a swim, and that’s something they can never get in a cage

Image credits: andrewskowron

Image credits: andrewskowron