Sweden Ends Mink Breeding Through 2021

​worldanimalnews.com/breaking-sweden-shuts-down-the-mink-industry-in-2021-to-stop-the-spread-of-covid-19/

Following Denmark's announcement that they were banning mink fur farming until the end of 2021, Sweden has announced similar plans in an effort to curb covid-19, after outbreaks affected 12 fur farms across the nation. The ban will affect breeding of mink, but farmers are permitted to keep the mink they currently have. 

Denmark's handling of the ravaged mink fur industry was disastrous and received negative world wide attention. There was the euthanasia of anywhere between 15 and 17 million mink as a precaution that led to mass burials. These mass burials were so poorly planned that when the massive piles of mink started to release gas, they appeared to be coming up from beneath the ground. Obviously, from an environmental standpoint, this was an absolute nightmare with the potential for serious environmental impacts but just the sheer magnitude of mink culled and rapidly buried was a disaster. 

While animal advocacy groups are applauding this decision as a sign that the mink fur-farming industry is over with, I believe it is too early to tell. There has been overwhelming evidence over the years of the cruelty fur-farmed animals endure during their brief lives and nothing stopped the industry. There has been undercover investigations that have turned up serious instances of cruelty and yet the industry not only survived, but continued to thrive despite continued public support for a ban on fur farming. While this particular situation and its magnitude would probably be the biggest hurdle the fur industry has faced thus far, their resilience in the past has proven to be quite frustrating.

What I truly hope comes from this is the recognizance that the fur-farming industry is incredibly feeble and can really be a breeding ground for disease and virus transmission. We learned that mink not only caught the virus, but mutated it and transmitted it back to humans rapidly. We learned that the only solution to protecting humans was to cull 15 million living creatures rapidly. Knowing all of this and recognizing that they would be starting from square one, I'm really hoping that this is an eye-opening experience. I'm hoping that every country across the globe that continues to participate in fur-farming sees this as a sign that we must end this barbaric industry once and for all.

So much money and so many innocent lives were lost this year because of the covid pandemic. What kind of a guarantee is there truly that this will never occur again? What will we have learned if we witness this kind of devastation within the industry again? My thoughts are that the industry needs to cut their losses and look for grants and subsidies to transfer over to other eco-friendly farming opportunities. As I said, more and more people are expressing their discontent over the fur industry and I can only see this increasing as time goes on. This is an opportunity to cut ties with an industry that has profited off of the suffering of animals that are bred for nothing more than fur trims.

What do you guys think? Is this truly the end of fur, or is there still a fight to be fought?

HAPPY VEG