Fur Industry: Killing Season Has Begun

Fur farmers are equipped with heavy gloves and metal tongs to grab animals by the neck.

Yet while fur farmers take precautions to avoid damaging the pelts, they do as little as possible to reduce the suffering of the animals when they are killed for their fur.

The latest report "Fur Free Europe" does not go into the bloody details of these animals' final moments. But the brutality of their deaths is shocking and emphatically underscores why fur farming must be banned.

Gassing: 4 to 15 minutes until death

The mink are removed from their cages by grabbing them at the base of the tail and pushing them through a spring-loaded trapdoor into a gas chamber on wheels. This keeps handling to a minimum, but the highly independent mink are thrown together with dozens of others. This is not only extremely stressful, but they can also suffocate before the gas takes effect because they are confined together with so many others.

Despite calls to end this practice, mink are still gassed with carbon dioxide. Depending on the concentration of the gas, it can take between 4 and 15 minutes for the mink to die. Carbon monoxide is also used to kill mink, but since this gas causes unconsciousness and death through oxygen deprivation, it is particularly cruel for an animal accustomed to diving.

Electric shock: cardiac arrest while fully conscious

The least repugnant method of killing animals by electric shock involves simultaneously applying electrodes to the head and back, so that the current passes directly through the brain, rendering the animals unconscious before they die of cardiac arrest. On fur farms, however, foxes and raccoon dogs are made to bite down on one electrode while another is inserted into the rectum — and their hearts go into fibrillation before they lose consciousness.

Neck breaking in chinchillas

Although chinchillas are sometimes also killed by gassing, head-to-tail or water electric shocks, many meet their end in the simplest way possible: the fur farmer grabs the head and jaw, arches the neck backwards, and then pulls hard on the tail, breaking the neck. The chinchilla stops squealing, but often continues to writhe in convulsions. All of this is part of a day's work.

This cruelty must stop. This killing season must come to an end.

If you agree, it is time to sign the European Citizens' Initiative Fur Free Europe to ban fur farms and farmed fur products on the European market.

The killing methods are chosen to protect the pelts, not the animals.

The complex behavioural needs of wild animal species such as foxes or minks bred for their fur cannot be met in fur farms. Keeping animals in cramped cages and killing them solely or primarily for their fur is also unjustifiable for domesticated species such as rabbits or chinchillas. Fur farming is unethical regardless of where it takes place, which is why we also call for a ban on the sale of fur from farmed animals.

You can help all animals and our planet with compassion. Choose empathy on your plate and in your glass. Go vegan.