End The Fur Trade In Denmark And Stop The Mink Slaughter
33,100 signatures toward our 50,000 Goal
Sponsor: The Animal Rescue Site
Millions of farm-bred mink are being culled to stop COVID. End the fur trade and protect global health!
Millions of mink live their entires lives packed tightly in wire cages on fur farms. They are starved and neglected, denied basic needs and driven to high anxiety and depression. And when it comes to killing these animals to meet the demands of the fur industry, the mink are electrocuted, bludgeoned and strangled before they are skinned for their fur.
Those that aren't killed cleanly are skinned live.
Denmark is the world's largest exporter of mink fur. Its top fur producer Kopenhagen Fur sells Danish mink and fox to fashion houses in Russia and China, which export their lines to retailers the US1.
According to the New York Times, 73 percent of 2015's 436 fashion shows in New York, Paris, Milan and London featured fur2.
More recently, a decline in the public demand for fur fashion has led to a significant drop in pelt prices and stockpiles of fur skins going unsold at auctions3.
The falling prices of these products hide an inhumane truth.
Ekstra Bladet, activists from the animal welfare organization ANIMA, and Danish TV2 have uncovered the atrocities that take place on a daily basis on mink and fox farms in Denmark. Their video shows a fox with a mouth full of abscesses; a mink with a lame hind leg that could not move; and a whole raft of mink with open flesh wounds4.
Mink are shown suffering large head wounds, or torn into pieces, sometimes laying dead in cages for weeks5.
Denmark now aims to cull 17 million mink after discovering a coronavirus mutation in the species that can spread to humans6.
The mutated COVID-19 virus has been detected on 207 of the 1,139 fur farms in Denmark and over 1.2 million mink have already been culled to slow the spread of the disease3.Â
This is not an act of benevolence, this is widespread murder for the sake of profiting off animal exploitation and inhumanity. The fur industry is at best unsustainable during an era of pandemic disease, at worst a catalyst for the next global health crisis.
Fur farmers have an opportunity to leave this nightmare behind. Sign the petition below and demand the Danish government ban the fur trade now.
- Kopengager Fur, "Facts."
- Alex Williams, New York Times (3 July 2015), "Fur Is Back in Fashion and Debate."
- Humane Society International (4 November 2020), "Denmark calls for total mink cull on all fur farms amidst COVID-19 infections."
- Zachary Shahan, Planet Save (1 December 2010), "Effort to Ban $1 Billion Fur Industry in Denmark."
- reddyrene (23 February 2011), "Virkeligheden på danske pelsfarme."
- Reese Oxner, NPR (5 November 2020), "Denmark To Kill Up To 17 Million Minks After Discovering Mutated Coronavirus."
The Petition:
Dear Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister, Denmark, and Mogens Jensen, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Denmark,
Your country is the world's leading producer of furs, an industry which has become synonymous with inhumanity and may be responsible for the next global health crisis.
Millions of mink are currently held captive on mink farms. They live their entires lives packed tightly in wire cages. They are starved and neglected, denied basic needs and driven to high anxiety and depression. And when it comes to killing these animals to meet the demands of the fur industry, the mink are electrocuted, bludgeoned and strangled before they are skinned for their fur.
Those that aren't killed cleanly are skinned live.
Facing falling profits and flagging sales, mink farms are now dealing with massive losses. Some have given up caring for the animals. Unsanitary conditions have further led to the spread of a new strain of COVID-19 that is passing from mink to humans.
The planned cull of 17 million mink will not stop the spread of COVID if it means the fur industry will simply resume operation as usual once. This is not an act of benevolence in the sake of public health, this is widespread murder for the sake of profiting off animal exploitation and inhumanity. The fur industry is at best unsustainable during an era of pandemic disease, and at worst a catalyst for the next outbreak.
I demand you ban the fur trade in Denmark now.
Sincerely,
