Europe’s leading economy is now a safe haven for all furry, four-pawed friends, as its last fur farm has closed its doors for good.
As a first step, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government introduced a ban on all fur farming in 2017 and set a deadline by 2022 for all farmers switch to new, more animal-friendly businesses.
According to UNILAD’s Francesca Donovan, the majority of the global supply of fur comes from farms, which are notorious for the cruelty to their inhabitants – mink, foxes, raccoon dogs, rabbits and, chinchillas.
In a mink farm near the village of Madzherito in Central Bulgaria, for example, these extremely territorial animals are kept in cages that are only about half a meter wide. The small living space, along with the presence of other minks, causes extreme neurological disorders to the farm’s inhabitants.
They show symptoms such as uncontrolled running in circles. There have also been numerous cases of parents devouring their young.
The farm in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany ‘now stands empty’, according to PETA’s Live Kindly, signaling the end of fur farming in the largest EU economy. According to UNILAD, the farm’s owner has given in to the public pressure on the part of animal rights groups, as well as the government.
Germany’s last fur farm was targeted by an online petition launched in March 2019. As quoted by UNILAD, it reads:
“Although the keeping conditions for the animals are catastrophic and mean endless suffering until the gruesome death from gas poisoning, the owner got the permission to continue the torturing of the animals until 2022”.
The petition’s author, whose initiative has so far been supported by 1,300 people, writes:
“No one should make profits through animal suffering. I still do not understand why some humans take the liberty of determining which animals we love, which one we eat and which animals we skin while being alive. Who gives us the right to do so? Just because animals do not speak in the language we understand.
Maybe we are the breed that is too stupid to understand them. Give every animal your voice and cry out for them.
Animals should not be born to end up as a fur coat for some heartless narcissist!”
The Fur Free Alliance reveals that 95% of the furs on the market come from farms. Each year, more than 1 billion rabbits and 50 million other animals — including mink, dogs foxes and even seals — are raised on fur farms and killed for their pelts.
Because much of the fur is imported from China and other countries with poor regulation, it is often mislabeled as “faux.” Depending on the size of the garment, up to 100 animals may be slaughtered for a single fur coat.
