Germany: Taxpayers’ Money for Hunting Associations’ Fur Project
Fur is inseparably linked to the suffering and death of animals. Yet hunting associations are attempting to make fur fashionable again – and, according to information from the Aktionsbündnis Fuchs, are drawing on substantial amounts of taxpayers’ money through public funding to do so. Major fashion designers and department stores – such as Breuninger and Chanel, most recently – are increasingly distancing themselves from the production and sale of fur fashion.
Fur is inseparably linked to the suffering and death of animals. Yet hunting associations are attempting to make fur fashionable again – and, according to information from the Aktionsbündnis Fuchs, are drawing on substantial amounts of taxpayers’ money through public funding to do so. Major fashion designers and department stores – such as Breuninger and Chanel, most recently – are increasingly distancing themselves from the production and sale of fur fashion.
In 2016, the German Hunting Association (Deutscher Jagdverband) founded Fellwechsel GmbH together with the Baden-Württemberg State Hunting Association – a company intended to process and market the pelts of killed wild animals as supposedly nature-friendly clothing and accessories. A central skinning station was established in Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, where foxes, martens, and other predators are stripped of their pelts. The Central Association of the Furrier Trade contributes its own label “we prefur,” intended to lend the project an ecological veneer.
Federal Council: No necessity to protect oneself from the cold using fur
Although well-funded hunting-affiliated companies such as Blaser Jagdwaffen GmbH are among the customers of Fellwechsel GmbH, and although hunters are currently encouraged to provide killed animals free of charge, the project is highly loss-making and accumulated liabilities of over 400,000 euros in its first year of operations.Tellingly, according to the Federal Gazette, 138,000 euros of these liabilities are owed to the shareholders — even though the German Hunting Association, for example, is a non-profit organization under its statutes. Through the back door, its tax-exempt status can thus be exploited to finance a dubious commercial enterprise for fur marketing.
The state of Saxony-Anhalt subsidizes fur project of hunting associations
But that is not all: as two minor parliamentary inquiries from Saxony-Anhalt reveal, "Fellwechsel" is being subsidized to a considerable extent directly with taxpayers' money. The black-red-green state government in Magdeburg states that in 2018, budget funds of 100,000 euros were reserved "for the implementation of the project 'Fellwechsel' in Saxony-Anhalt." In addition, funds were provided for the purchase of 40 chest freezers and four refrigerated containers at state forestry facilities. It can safely be assumed that the ongoing operating costs are also to be borne by the taxpayer.
Fur as a justification for hunting foxes and other predators
Fur production from hunting practices that are largely cruel to animals is unlikely to become profitable — the Fellwechsel project therefore serves primarily as a propaganda tool. By pointing to supposedly "ecologically correct" fur, the aim is to rehabilitate socially condemned fur clothing and to create a justification for the questionable persecution of foxes and other predators. In connection with the marketing of fur products, it is claimed that hunting foxes and the like is necessary and that using their pelts is therefore not objectionable. In reality, however, the understanding is increasingly gaining ground that hunting foxes or martens is by no means necessary, but is ecologically senseless and, for example, promotes the spread of wildlife diseases.
It is simply absurd to promote fur as sustainable clothing. In reality, highly toxic chemicals are used in the tanning of hides, and environmentally harmful lead shot is typically used when shooting the animals. On top of this, foxes in particular often meet their deaths through especially cruel hunting practices such as trapping or den hunting.
Federal Council: No necessity to protect oneself from the cold using fur
The German Hunting Association has clearly failed to read the signs of the times, as has the state government in Magdeburg. The vast majority of the population opposes real fur products, and the German Federal Council — in a draft legislation submitted in 2015 that has yet to be implemented — also sees no necessity to protect oneself from the cold by wearing fur clothing in this country.
Sources:
- 2017 Annual Report of Fellwechsel GmbH
- Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt, Printed Paper 7/3109 of 28.06.2018, and Printed Paper 7/3030 of 14.06.2018
- Draft legislation of the Federal Council, Printed Paper 217/15 (Resolution), of 10.07.2015
Detailed information about foxes and fox hunting as well as scientific references can be found in the Notes and References of the Aktionsbündnis Fuchs.
