But some important activities change with the seasons. Mink farming in numbers Farmed mink is the single most important fur type produced in North America today, in terms of the number of pelts produced and the value of the fur.
A year on a mink farm The need to provide farmed mink with a comfortable and stress-free environment, clean water, balanced diets, and overall good health remain the same year round.
These are highly abnormal behaviors for minks. Due to confinement and lack of activity, they become frustrated and frequently exhibit stereotyped behaviors, like repetitively moving in a certain way for no apparent reason. Being caged is a reason in itself for animals to be distressed. This means that the cage floors are uncomfortable for these animals.
They have to step, sit, and lie on the wire net beneath them for their entire lives. The piled-up excrement is not only a source of possible diseases and parasites, but also a cause of suffering for these animals; the strong stench of excrement is very bothersome to minks due to their acute sense of smell. These animals also suffer significant discomfort and sometimes pain because of weather conditions. They may have to endure freezing cold in the winter and scorching heat in the summer, and sometimes, as explained in the section on weather conditions , they can die due to heat stress.
Also, even though farms are often covered, when there is heavy rain the cold water or snow can still reach them. Several methods used to kill minks often only leave them unconscious. The most common ones are anal and oral electrocution, neck breaking, and suffocation. The animals are also often skinned alive while they are still conscious.
In the past few decades, there has been a growing social awareness regarding the ethical problems with the use of fur.
Therefore, the fur industries have implemented a strategy of including fur in only certain parts of coats, such as necks, sleeves, and hoods.
For this reason, in order to avoid financing the fur industry which causes the deaths of all these animals, it is important to be careful when buying coats and jackets. Minks are small mammals in the Mustelidae family. Those that are most often used for fur production are American minks. Minks bred by the fur industry commonly spend the majority of their short lives on the same factory farm on which they are born — and eventually killed — without ever going outside.
Minks give birth once a year during the spring. The babies remain with their mothers for several weeks, after which they are then taken away and separated forever. They are killed at about six months of age, usually during November or the beginning of December.
There are several methods used to kill the minks. Farmers gas them with carbon dioxide or sometimes nitrogen. In many cases, in order to reduce production costs, carbon dioxide is used in low concentrations. This causes a slower death.
The gases emitted by tractor exhaust pipes have also been widely used. Even though this method has been prohibited in some countries due to the pollutants these gases contain, it is still used. The gases cause stress and convulsions in the animals before they die. Unlike humans and other animals such as pigs, minks are able to detect anoxia lack of oxygen , which stresses them intensely and causes them much suffering when they are killed.
Good nutrition, comfortable housing and prompt veterinary care have resulted in livestock very well suited to the farm environment. National codes of practice and operating guidelines provide further assurance that farmed fur bearing animals are well cared for. In addition, mink farmers voluntarily adhere to stricter codes of animal husbandry to become certified in the Fur Commission Humane Care Farm Certification Program.
Precise attention to animal care has enabled North American farmers to produce the finest quality fur in the world. These Guidelines were designed to assist farmers in assuring a humane environment for the animals under their care. Yes, over the past two decades twenty countries have either voted to ban the practice, have prohibited the farming of particular species, or have introduced stricter regulations that have effectively curtailed the practice.
Legislation is also progressing in France and Ireland, and a number of other countries are currently considering banning fur farming. In Germany effective , Sweden and Switzerland, the stricter welfare requirements on fur farms have effectively made the practice economically unviable. In New Zealand, the import of mink is prohibited, which effectively bans mink farming in the country, and fur farming has ended in Japan.
See the latest list. Yes, in Israel became the first country in the world to ban real fur sales. The towns of Weston and Wellesley in Massachusetts and the city of Ann Arbor in Michigan banned fur sales in and , and more US cities and states are looking to follow suit in the future. In the UK, the government is considering action on fur sales.
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