85% of the skins in the fur industry come from captive animals. These farms can keep thousands of animals at a time, and breeding practices are similar around the world. The methods used on the farms are aimed at making a profit, and always at the expense of the animals.
The most common fur animal on farms is the mink, followed by the fox. Chinchillas, lynxes, and even hamsters are raised just for their skins. Animals are housed in small cramped cages, living in fear, disease, parasites, all for an industry that makes billions of dollars a year.
To cut costs, the animals are kept in small cages where they can’t even walk. Bondage and crowding embitter the minks, and they begin to bite their skin, tails and legs out of desperation. Zoologists at the University of Oxford who have studied minks in captivity have found that they never become domesticated and suffer greatly in captivity. Foxes, raccoons and other animals eat each other, reacting to the overcrowding of the cell.
Animals on fur farms are fed organ meats that are unfit for human consumption. Water is supplied through systems that often freeze in winter or break down.
Animals in captivity are more susceptible to disease than their free counterparts. Infectious diseases quickly spread through the cells, fleas, lice and ticks flourish. Flies swarm over the waste products that have been accumulating for months. Minks suffer from heat in the summer, not being able to cool off in the water.
An undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States found that the dog and cat are widely used in a multi-million dollar industry in Asia. And products from this fur are imported to other countries. If an imported item costs less than $150, the importer does not guarantee what it is made of. Despite the law banning the import of clothes made from cats and dogs, their fur is distributed illegally around the world, since authenticity can only be determined with the help of expensive DNA testing.
Contrary to what the fur industry claims, fur production destroys the environment. The energy spent on the production of a natural fur coat is 20 times higher than that required for an artificial one. The process of using chemicals to treat hides is dangerous due to water pollution.
Austria and Great Britain outlawed fur farms. The Netherlands began phasing out fox and chinchilla farms from April 1998. In the US, the number of fur farms fell by a third. As a sign of the times, supermodel Naomi Campbell was denied entry to a fashion club in New York because she was wearing fur.
Buyers should know that each fur coat is the result of the suffering of several dozen animals, sometimes not yet born. This cruelty will only end when society refuses to buy and wear fur. Please share this information with others to save the animals!