Caged, Tortured and Gassed – The Life of Minks and Foxes on a US Fur Farm
Wisconsin is the top mink-producing state in the United States, and these images gathered from a two-month PETA US eyewitness exposé of huge fur farm Dillenburg Fur Farm, LLC, reveal the horrific conditions typical of the fur industry.
The investigator discovered thousands of minks and scores of foxes kept in rows of filthy, wire-floored cages with high piles of their own waste underneath. These animals were subsequently slaughtered for fur to make coats and collars for shoppers all over the world.
The cages were sprayed with a high-pressure washer while the minks were inside because, as the owner’s wife said, “If those mink are stained and dirty, I’m losing 10, 20 dollars a mink on that”. The loud pressure-washer engine caused them to circle, jump and pace wildly.
This mink, named Miss Mary by the eyewitness, chewed through a cage until her face was bloody. The eyewitness did not see her receive any veterinary care, a form of neglect that is common in the fur industry.
Workers grabbed terrified, screaming minks by their sensitive tails, crammed them into this metal drum and pumped it full of dirty gas from a running engine, crudely suffocating them en masse. The farmer broke the neck of one mink who had survived the gassing. Another mink survived for 20 minutes before finally dying.
This fox, named D2 by the eyewitness, had visibly swollen gums, but the eyewitness never saw him receive any veterinary care. The farmer said the fox had refused to breed and bragged in graphic detail that he’d “jacked” him. But D2 was also killed in a makeshift gas chamber along with some of the other foxes.
It’s inexcusable that living beings suffer in this way for the sake of frivolous “fashionable” clothing. You can help animals like the ones pictured here by refusing to wear fur products, speaking out when you see them for sale and encouraging others to do the same.
