2020: The End of the Line for Fur?
Every cloud has a silver lining, and 2020’s could be the impending end of the fur industry.
Calls to end the cruel fur trade are reaching fever pitch as consumers, businesses, and entire countries recognise that other animals feel pain and fear, just as humans do.
No sentient being should be made to endure a miserable life and a bloody, painful death. And in 2020, crucial progress has been made towards relegating the fur industry to the history books.
The Netherlands Puts an End to Fur Farming
Following the introduction of a ban on fox and chinchilla fur farms in the mid ’90s, minks were the only animal who could legally be farmed for their pelts in the Netherlands. Dutch fur farmers raise around 2.5 million minks per year, making the country the fourth-largest fur producer in the world.
But from March 2021, mink fur farms will be just a bad memory in the Netherlands. Between April and June this year, COVID-19 outbreaks occurred on more than one-third of the country’s mink farms, prompting the government to bring forward the deadline by which the industry must shut down, which had originally been set for 2024.
Poland Votes for Fur-Farming Ban
In another historic move, Poland’s Sejm (the lower house of its parliament) voted in favour of a fur-farming ban in September.
If the Polish Senate and president approve the legislation, it will end the suffering of approximately 6 million minks, foxes, and raccoon dogs every year, within a year. Poland is the world’s third-largest fur producer, so if the ban is implemented, it will strike a huge blow to the cruel fur trade.
France to End Mink-Fur Farming by 2025
Another exciting announcement came at the end of September, when France declared that it will end mink farming. The country’s four remaining farms will shut down by no later than 2025, cutting off the UK’s second-largest source of fur imports.
©Jo-Anne McArthur / #MakeFurHistory
Israel and UK to Ban Fur Imports?
Reports released in September revealed that the UK government is drafting plans to ban fur imports and sales after the Brexit transition period ends in December.
If the plans go ahead, this will finally end the hypocrisy of the UK’s continued complicity in the cruel fur industry, whereby the government allows fur items to be imported despite having banned fur farming on animal welfare grounds in 2000.
In October, the Israeli government also announced plans to ban imports of fur from wild animals, stating that the use of fur in the fashion industry is immoral. The race is on to be the first country to bring a ban into force!
Now is the time: join us in keeping the pressure on the government to outlaw fur imports and sales – urge your MP to support a ban.
More Good News
Nordstrom, a US department-store chain that PETA US has been urging to drop fur since the ’80s, has finally announced that it’s banning both fur and exotic skins.
As the world turns its back on fur, Frasers Group, which owns UK department-store chain House of Fraser, must do the right thing and end its shameful sales of fur. Take action:
Urge House of Fraser to Ditch Fur
© Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
