Covering yourself in furs dates back to the Stone Age. The material would then come from wild animals trapped in steel traps. Sometimes the hides of hunted animals were used for food, sometimes the other way around, the animals were hunted for their skins and then the meat was consumed as meat. We no longer live in the Stone Age.
The irony of the situation is that nowadays people don’t need fur to keep warm, but synthetic fiber is available in stores everywhere. It’s mostly a cosmetic requirement now, where people can wrap themselves in animal fur and feel a little taller than their peers. For this, ‘fur farms’ have emerged, where animals are ‘collected’ so that they can be slaughtered and their fur can be used as a cosmetic accessory.
The animals are raised in hellish conditions on fur farms. Even death is not easy for animals on a fur farm. They are raised in dirty, intensively small cages throughout their lives and are beaten with metal rods, hung, or skinned to remove the skin. Most of these animals are taken from their dingy, dirty cages and their legs and tails are mercilessly cut off before the skin is ripped from their bodies.
Billions of individual animals trapped in these barbaric fur farms are tormented and killed each year with blatantly cruel methods. Many animals are still alive and fight desperately in agony as they are skinned. There must be a way to end this tremendous animal suffering.
Fur farming is a term used for the breeding of certain types of animals in captivity for their fur. On these farms, rabbits, minks, foxes, and other animals with fur are kept in excruciatingly small wire cages in dirty, dark sheds that have no protection from extreme weather such as freezing rain or scorching sun.
Most of the fur farms are in Europe, some in North America, and recently China has become a major player in the industry. Minks, rabbits and foxes are the animals most in demand for their fur. Others include chinchilla, raccoon, sheep, and sometimes even cats and dogs. Up to eighty percent of today’s fur comes from fur farms. The rest are caught in nature in horrible traps.
According to available records, mink had been bred for fur since the early 1860s in North America. The first of the fox farms dates back to 1895 in Canada. The fur trade has played an important role in the United States. The fad for beaver hats spawned fur hunters, who explored much of North America due to intense demand for raw material supplies.
Since the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, animal skins have faced competition from synthetic fibers, but cruel fur farms still abound throughout the world, as ‘natural’ products now have a even higher demand compared to synthetic leathers because they are perceived as more precious and therefore more prestigious.
Of all the skins, the mink is the most demanded; in fact, it can even be said that mink is the mainstay of the fur industry. Mink has been cultivated in the United States for nearly 130 years and is currently the fifth in production, with Denmark, China, the Netherlands and China being the other leading nations.
Minks generally breed in March and give birth in May. They are ‘harvested’ from November to December. Their average litter is three to four kits. The best animals are kept for later reproduction and the rest are collected (translated into slaughter). Almost 26 million minks die each year for the sole purpose of acquiring their fur.
Minks are native to North America and are semi-aquatic animals. They are curious and lonely by nature and spend most of their time swimming in the water. They are active animals and therefore are not expected to do well in cages.
On a fur farm, the mink is generally kept in a cage, which is no more than 10 inches by 24 inches in dimension. They do not get water, except that which is provided to them to drink through a nipple system, which can also fail and freeze in the winter. They hardly have room to move, much less do they have any scope of activity. Frustrated, the animal becomes neurotic, often moving back and forth repetitively or self-mutilation by biting its tail. Ironically, that is detrimental to the farmer due to the potential damage and consequent devaluation of the skin. However, the profitability of cramming too many animals in too little space outweighs any potential loss to the farmer.
Many of the animals die prematurely due to shock, blood loss, stress, poor sanitation, heat, or cannibalism. On a fur farm, the semi-aquatic mink will never swim in its entire life. As a result, many die from the heat during the summer. As fashion demands it, the leather industry adapts.
Selective inbreeding results in mutant color phases, regardless of the damage it does to the animal. For example, the white Hedlund mink, which has been bred as a fur farm genetic variety, will lose hearing at 30 days of age.
The Royal Pastel mink develops a “screw neck” deformity, where the mink turns its head in an awkward motion repeatedly.
The Blue Iris mink is born with a deficiency in natural killer cells. These deformities are rare in nature, but are prevalent in fur farm animals because they are deliberately created. As a final note, it takes around 60 female or 35 male mink to make a mink coat.
Next in demand are fox skins. Finland is the leader, followed by Canada. The United States is also one of the leading producers of fox fur. Stress-induced cannibalism is so common among fur-farm raised foxes that an estimated 20% of foxes die prematurely from it.
On a fur farm, the goal is to get the maximum profit. Animals are treated as raw materials, not as living beings that have needs or can feel pain and agony. They are often crammed into small cages, more than one per cage to reduce costs. Most animals go crazy under these living conditions. They also self-mutilate, bite their tails or limbs, and resort to cannibalism.
The cages are often kept in rows in giant sheds or barns, which are dirty and dark. The ammonia in the accumulated excreta of animals, which is never cleaned, burns their eyes and lungs. Worse still, sometimes the animals are made to be lined up outdoors, without any protection from the bone-chilling cold or sweltering heat. They are also infested with parasites.
The animals are fed meat by-products that are considered unfit for human consumption. Their source of drinking water is the teat system, which freezes during the winter and can also fail due to human error, causing the animals to die of thirst. If this is how animals live on fur farms, then their deaths are even more gruesome.
To preserve the skins, most animals die in excruciating and agonizing ways. They are routinely electrocuted, gassed, poisoned, or have their necks broken. Animals often have forceps or rods pierced through the mouth or anus and then electrocuted. This causes the animals to go into cardiac arrest while they are still conscious. Foxes are commonly killed this way.
Minks often have their necks broken or gassed with poison. Chinchillas, which are small animals, are mostly killed by breaking their necks or electrocuting themselves with a metal clamp on the ear and genitals. Due to their small size, it takes up to 100 chinchillas to kill to make a fur coat.
Furthermore, another animal that has suffered the brunt of the global fur trade is the well-known raccoon found in vast areas of North America. Since time immemorial, their furs have been used to dress men and protect them from freezing winter weather conditions. Consequently, they were not only hunted by the North Americans, but lately, the possession of coats and ‘raccoon fur hats’ made with their fur was considered very fashionable in different periods of time.
Raccoon fur farms, as one might imagine, are a nasty center for animal rights violations. The living conditions that these animals have to experience here are nothing short of a living hell. Press reports in the media have also alleged that many of these animals are skinned alive. Surely this cannot be the civilized way of treating creatures that cannot speak for themselves and yet, time and again, it is proving to be the morbid truth that is pushing these powerless animals into a future of extinction.
Vulnerable and defenseless animals raised on fur farms live in intense confinement and are tormented and killed for their fur.
Rabbits are social and intelligent creatures and can live up to 12 years. They love to play and groom each other. But for the billions of rabbits killed for their skin and meat, life couldn’t be more different.
All rabbit breeds are confined in excruciatingly small wire cages and kept on a battery system. There is hardly room for them to move or stretch. They often suffer bone fractures. A considerable portion of them are found suffocated to death upon reaching the skinning area due to the way they are packed in a small space.
In China, most animals are skinned alive while they are still conscious. The cruel farmers simply grab the animal and mercilessly peel off the skin and throw the still alive, conscious animal, half dead in agony, into a nearby heap and leave it there to die.
Skins obtained from nature are no better. They are trapped in a steel jaw trap, which slowly kills them. They suffer immensely in agony for days before finding liberation in death. A fast bullet is not acceptable as it can damage the skin.
Fur farming is nothing more than a torture of living, curious, active and beautiful beings, in an institutionalized way, for the sake of fashion.