Italy: 1’000 minks poisoned after breeding ban
In Italy, over 1'000 minks were brutally poisoned following the fur farming ban. The operator refused to surrender the animals alive.
Last August, 1’035 minks died a sudden and extremely painful death from food poisoning at one of the 5 remaining mink farms in Italy.
Following investigations by health authorities, the animals had been fed spoiled or contaminated chicken meat.
Shortly after receiving this information from local health authorities, our member organisation LAV was able to conduct an undercover investigation to document a shocking discovery: the carcasses of all 1’035 minks are still being stored in a cold room within the farm (along with the offal of chickens intended to feed the last 30 surviving minks on the farm).
In the footage, the farmer also shows a makeshift “gas chamber” used to slaughter the minks — a wooden and metal box connected to the exhaust of a chainsaw. This constitutes a clear violation of legislation designed to prevent minks from being subjected to “direct or progressive exposure of conscious animals to a gas mixture containing more than 40% carbon dioxide”, and specifies gas concentration, duration of exposure, and gas temperature as fundamental parameters to be monitored. Furthermore, to avoid stress situations or episodes of aggression, only one animal at a time may be killed.
In addition to the serious animal welfare concerns, the farmer was filmed in close contact with the animals without personal protective equipment, despite biosecurity measures introduced by the Ministry of Health over a year ago to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ban on fur farming in Italy came into effect on January 1, meaning that these 33 minks, along with the approximately 6’000 others on the remaining 4 Italian farms, should have been transferred to an animal welfare facility by January 31 according to a decree.
LAV has already written a letter to the Minister of Agriculture requesting «reaffirmation of the ban on killing minks on farms«.
In the meantime, no farmer can profit from killing minks still on the farms, due to the explicit prohibition on killing them for fur.
It is scandalous how the fur industry continues to boast of its so-called responsible certifications such as the Welfur project, particularly regarding animal welfare, when it is clear that animals not only suffer from the severe deprivations they endure, but also from the lack of attention and care with which they are treated. The episode in Castel diSangro, with the death of 1’035 minks from food poisoning, is the latest scandal surrounding “Made in Italy”fur, uncovered by LAV following our announcement of the 2 coronavirus outbreaks — in 2020 in Cremona and 2021 in Padua — and the documentation in November 2020 of violations of minimum biosecurity standards at these facilities.
Simone Pavesi, Head of LAV Animal Free Fashion
