Tortured Minks in Biodiesel
PETA's motto is: Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way. The organization campaigns against speciesism — a worldview that ranks humans as superior to all other living beings.
The fur farming industry in Germany is history. The requirements for animal husbandry proved too demanding. The fur industry relocated to neighboring countries and has discovered new ways to profit from minks — including biodiesel.
Video footage leaked to PETA shows that the Schleswig-Holstein-based animal carcass disposal facility Rendac Jagel GmbH regularly imports skinned mink carcasses on a large scale from Danish fur farms.
These are processed there and sold profitably to biodiesel plants in the Netherlands. In addition, the animal meal derived from the minks is used as fuel for cement works. Without realizing it, drivers and other consumers are contributing — through these business practices — to keeping foreign mink farms profitable. PETA called on Rendac Jagel GmbH and the state government of Schleswig-Holstein in writing to put an end to the import of animal carcasses from foreign fur farms.
PETA Criticizes Biodiesel Made from Animal Carcasses
«The vast majority of Germans firmly oppose fur farms, yet Rendac Jagel is allowing drivers and other consumers to unknowingly support this bloody business», says Johanna Fuoss, specialist advisor at PETA. «The appalling conditions in which minks are kept on Danish fur farms would be illegal in Germany. Blending their tortured bodies into biodiesel helps keep this merciless industry alive.»
Background Information
While the last fur farm in Germany has not kept any animals since March 2019, the bloody business continues on over 1’500 Danish mink farms, and German companies also profit from it. Heavy trucks carrying enormous containers regularly make their way from Denmark to the premises of Rendac Jagel GmbH. As video footage passed to PETA shows, these containers are packed to the brim with thousands of minks, amounting to thousands of tonnes per year. The animal carcasses are then processed at the factory in Schleswig-Holstein. Their fat is converted into biodiesel at group-affiliated factories in the Netherlands, while their bones are ground into meal that is supplied as fuel to cement factories. A win-win situation for Rendac and the fur farms.
In many European countries, this particularly cruel form of animal husbandry on fur farms has already been banned or rendered uneconomical through the introduction of stricter legislation — including in Germany. At the same time, however, Germany is one of the largest buyers of biodiesel from the Netherlands.Consumers have no way of knowing at the petrol pump how a fuel is composed, meaning they unwittingly contribute to keeping the operation of Danish fur farms a profitable business.
19 million minks in Denmark
In Denmark, the world's second-largest fur-producing country, around 19 million minks live in tiny wire mesh cages. Investigations on Danish fur farms reveal the cruel living conditions of the animals. They are confined to such tiny wire cages that many of them develop severe behavioural disorders, spinning in circles for hours, attacking their fellow animals, or even injuring themselves. In addition, minks and other animals on fur farms are constantly exposed to the caustic smells of their own faeces and urine, which collect beneath their cages. At the end of their deprived lives, minks are killed in an agonising manner, usually by gassing. Exhaust fumes are sometimes used for this purpose, which can cause severe respiratory distress and anxiety. Their death struggle can last up to four minutes. Furthermore, some animals are not adequately sedated or regain consciousness during the skinning process.
