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Fur Farming
a Business of Brutality
The fur trade was brought to North America by the first Europeans to settle on its shores, and was quickly passed on to native tribes as a means of support in the wake of their loss of land and food resources. The beaver (Castor canadensis) nearly became extinct from over-trapping, and when wild fur-bearers became too scarce for trappers to obtain south of the Canadian border, the first fur farm was created in 1866.
Fur farms are responsible for the deaths of 3 million mink (Mustela vison) every year in the United States; the animals' skins are used to make coats, their subcutaneous fat is refined to produce mink oil, and their carcasses are used in low-grade, commercial pet food. The average lifespan of a fur farm mink is seven months, as opposed to the five to ten years they could live under good conditions. While on the farm, mink are fed entirely on animal byproducts - a mixture of intestines, fish offal, rotten eggs, and spoiled milk. Byproducts are required by law to be treated with toxic chemicals before they can be sold, for the purpose of killing bacteria; these toxins are consumed by the mink, and subsequently by companion animals fed on low-grade pet foods containing mink carcasses, often listed as protein meal in the ingredients. Farmed mink are kept in excessively small cages, typically 2,000 square inches (20"x10"x10"), which do not meet their enrichment needs. They are killed using carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide gases, or by neck-breaking; it takes an average of 50 mink to make one fur coat.
Foxes, chinchillas, rabbits, ermine, and sables are a few of the other animals farmed for their fur in the United States and in Europe. Slaughtering techniques for some of these species include anal and genital electrocution, drowning, bludgeoning, and gunshot. Sable (Martes zibellina) and chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera) coats are considered the most valuable, often commanding prices over $100,000; despite their numbers in the fur and pet trades, perhaps fewer than 10,000 chinchillas remain in the wild.
Approximately 30% of the fur bearing animals used in the industry in North America are trapped in the wild, most of them in Canada. The leg-hold traps most commonly used have been banned in 89 countries and several American states because of the cruelty they inflict, and because they are not species-specific; nearly 90% of the animals trapped in Canada are non-target species, including endangered animals and family pets. This means that for every mink coat made from trapped mink, as many as 183 non-target animals are killed and left to rot. Considering that 30% of the mink pelts used for fur clothing in North America are obtained through trapping, the average mink coat represents 15 wild mink caught in traps, 35 farmed mink, and 55 dead animals of various species, including pet dogs and cats, that were simply thrown away.
In email correspondence, Fur Commission USA president Teresa Platt stated that farm-raised mink have a high rate of survival in the wild, and conceded that no evidence exists that they are genetically distinct from wild mink. According to Platt, fur farmers "[take] wild animals and [modify] them for human benefit," however the only modification that has taken place is the intergradation of different mink subspecies, a process that occurs naturally where ranges overlap. (Read more.) Despite claims that farmed mink are a separate, domestic species, there has not been sufficient time in the short history of fur farming for such significant genetic change to occur, especially in light of the fact that the phenotypic characteristics sought after by fur farmers are the same ones selected within the framework of Darwinian evolution. That is to say that the same thick fur that gives a mink coat a high retail value is what increases a wild mink's chances of surviving the winter - mink do not need to be modified for fur production. Virtually no legislation exists on the federal level to control fur farming, and the United States Department of Agriculture classifies fur farm animals as domestic species, with no reason for doing so other than the fact that the animals are kept in cages and used in commerce. Fur farmers want mink and foxes to remain classified as domestic animals so that they will not be subject to legislation regarding wild species and to limit the scrutiny of government agencies over their operations.
Fur has no intrinsic value apart from its use in high fashion; synthetic fibers require less maintenance, cost less money, weigh less, and have better insulative properties. Fur Commission USA claims that fur is a sustainable, biodegradable fiber, and that fur farmers reduce waste by "recycling" animal byproducts, which they refer to in their promotional materials as "garbage", indicating that fur farm mink are indeed raised on a diet of waste products. In reality, fur farms produce an enormous amount of waste; Finnish fur farms produce about 150 million pounds of droppings per year, a waste product that cannot be recycled or reused in its raw form. Raw carnivore feces are far too toxic for use in fertilizers, they harbor dangerous pathogens, and excess amounts can create a build-up of phosphorus and other pollutants in watersheds, killing native fishes. The ammonia produced by fur farm animals in Finland accounts for around 5% of the airborne ammonia in that nation. Fur is marketed as environmentally friendly, but a number of the chemicals used to process fur are highly toxic, and listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as potential carcinogens; in 1991, the Agency fined six fur coat producers a total of $2.2 million for illegally generating, storing, transporting, and disposing of these chemicals. In 1992, the Dutch Advertising Standards Authority ruled that advertisements promoting fur clothing as "ecological" were false and misleading. Perhaps most alarming is the study conducted by Ford Motor Company's Scientific Research Laboratory in 1979, in which it was discovered that the production of a faux fur coat expended 120,300 BTU (British Thermal Units), about the same amount of energy contained in a gallon of gasoline, while a coat produced from farm-raised mink expended 7,965,800 BTU, more than 66 times the energy.
Fur farmers have a powerful lobby that influences legislation on their behalf, and releases propaganda filled with unsubstantiated claims about fur products and their opponents in the animal rights and animal welfare movements. Fur farmers claim to be conservationists and proponents of animal welfare, but their actions are not in line with the values they claim to espouse. Legitimate animal welfare proponents and conservationists must join together and oppose the fur industry for its cruelty to animals, indiscriminate killing of wildlife, and pollution of the environment. Genetic studies are needed to determine if there is such a thing as a domestic mink or fox, and if there is not, the USDA must be lobbied to reclassify them as a wild species. The Canadian government must be urged to prosecute fur trappers for poaching when they kill non-target species, and to ban leg-hold traps. The United Kingdom has already made fur farming illegal, and a number of European nations are in the process of doing the same; true conservationists and proponents of animal welfare must work to ensure that the United States does not become the last stronghold for the fur industry.
Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) farming is a similar industry that raises wild animals for their skins, and brings a premature end to the lives of wild animals in captivity; most alligators on skin farms are killed at around five years of age, although they might live natural lives of about 100 years. Another wild animal, the ostrich, is also raised for its skin, and sharks are persecuted in the wild for their valuable leather. A similar practice to skin farming also takes place in the United States, but has a decidedly more sinister bent; 'Rattlesnake Roundups' still occur in a few states, in which thousands of wild rattlesnakes are captured, put on public display, used in cruel games and contests, and killed to order. Rattlesnake hunters often wipe out entire breeding colonies, as the animals are captured in their hibernation dens. Public education is needed to change opinions about these animals, which play a vital role in rodent control, and want only to be left alone.
How you can help: Do not buy fur or wild animal leather, and boycott businesses that sell items made from these products. Read labels - do not buy pet food that contains fur farm carcasses, or leather-care products containing mink oil. Tell others what you know about the fur industry. Write to government officials and urge them to illegalize the fur trade locally, statewide, or nationally.
(This article was adapted from Steve Markwell's master's thesis; contact us for a list of supporting documents.)
Posted on July 17, 2006
