The European Commission has given its response to Fur Free Europe

On Thursday, December 7th, the European Commission responded to the successful European citizens' initiative Fur Free Europe. In less than 10 months, Fur Free Europe collected 1.5 million signatures, and the aim is to ban fur farming in the EU as well as the trade with fur products on the internal market. The European Commission's response does not match what EU citizens have raised their voices for, but means that further steps are being taken towards a fur free Europe.

In its response to the initiative, the Commission has mandated EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, to present a scientific opinion by March 2025. Based on this, the Commission has committed to consider measures in line with the initiative by March 2026. The door for an EU-wide ban on fur farming and trade in fur products has thus been opened, but the decision may take some time. In parallel with EFSA's work on the scientific opinion, the European Commission plans to carry out three visits to fur farms in Member States, consider including mink on the EU list of invasive species, and review the EU's textile labelling.

– It's good news that the European Commission is now starting the process towards a ban on fur farming, which so many citizens are calling for. But it is a shame that the process is being dragged out. There are already lots of evidence stating that animal welfare cannot be achieved on fur farms, says Benny Andersson, CEO of Project 1882.

On fur farms, mainly wild animals, including minks, foxes and raccoon dogs, are kept in small cages where they are prevented from showing natural behaviour and then killed solely for the value of their fur. The arguments against fur farming are not limited to animal welfare: farms also pose a risk of new pandemics, and the use of toxic chemicals makes them one of the most polluting industries. 20 EU Member States have already fully or partially banned fur farming or introduced stricter measures in the interest of animal welfare, the environment and public health.

– It is now of utmost importance that the scientific opinion process is transparent and impartial and involves consultation with stakeholders across the board, to avoid over-representation of industry compared to independent scientists and non-governmental organisations, Benny Andersson concludes.

In its response to the initiative, the Commission has mandated EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, to present a scientific opinion by March 2025. Based on this, the Commission has committed to consider measures in line with the initiative by March 2026. The door for an EU-wide ban on fur farming and trade in fur products has thus been opened, but the decision may take some time. In parallel with EFSA's work on the scientific opinion, the European Commission plans to carry out three visits to fur farms in Member States, consider including mink on the EU list of invasive species, and review the EU's textile labelling.

– It's good news that the European Commission is now starting the process towards a ban on fur farming, which so many citizens are calling for. But it is a shame that the process is being dragged out. There are already lots of evidence stating that animal welfare cannot be achieved on fur farms, says Benny Andersson, CEO of Project 1882.

On fur farms, mainly wild animals, including minks, foxes and raccoon dogs, are kept in small cages where they are prevented from showing natural behaviour and then killed solely for the value of their fur. The arguments against fur farming are not limited to animal welfare: farms also pose a risk of new pandemics, and the use of toxic chemicals makes them one of the most polluting industries. 20 EU Member States have already fully or partially banned fur farming or introduced stricter measures in the interest of animal welfare, the environment and public health.

– It is now of utmost importance that the scientific opinion process is transparent and impartial and involves consultation with stakeholders across the board, to avoid over-representation of industry compared to independent scientists and non-governmental organisations, Benny Andersson concludes.

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Support our work for the animals

Project 1882 strives for a world where every life matters. By supporting our work, you help make that vision become a reality.

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Matilda Antti

Fur industry

In the fur industry, animals are bred and killed solely because people want to wear their furs. The animals are kept in small cages and their living conditions are very different from the life they are adapted to. It doesn't have to be that way. Project 1882 works to dismantle the fur industry and the fur trade.

Project 1882 praises Sweden’s mink farm decision: Finally!

The Swedish government has today announced how they view the future of mink farms. In a proposal for the new budget bill, the government parties propose that SEK 180 million be set aside for the dismantling of Swedish mink farms in 2024 and 2025. The government's press release also states that in parallel, work is being initiated to review the animal welfare legislation to investigate whether fur farming should be banned. Project 1882 is pleased and welcomes today's announcement.

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We make a difference

Project 1882 strives for a world where every life matters. By supporting our work, you help make that vision become a reality.

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Support us

We make a difference

Project 1882 strives for a world where every life matters. By supporting our work, you help make that vision become a reality.

Donate

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– Finally! This announcement for minks is extremely longed for. It marks the beginning of the end for all fur farming in Sweden, says Benny Andersson, CEO of Project 1882.

In it’s budget motion, the government proposes to allocate a total of SEK 180 million in 2024 and 2025 to support the entrepreneurs who voluntarily discontinue their business of mink breeding for fur production. The aid is intended to be paid out to companies after the closure has been completed during the period.

A controlled closure is something Project 1882 has repeatedly proposed. In the fall of 2021, Project 1882 published a report with similar proposals that the government is now publishing.

Project 1882 has been actively working for the phasing out of fur farms for more than 50 years and recently collected around 100,000 names for a fur-free Europe, which was submitted last spring. The prospect of a possible ban at EU level, together with the fact that more than 20 EU member states have already taken a stand against fur farming, are cited as the reasons behind today's government announcement.

– This announcement is first and foremost good news for all minks, but not least for Project 1882's supporters who have been involved in this struggle for decades. Without their efforts and support, this would not have happened, concludes Benny Andersson.

Anna Harenius

anna.harenius@djurensratt.se

Fur industry

In the fur industry, animals are bred and killed solely because people want to wear their furs. The animals are kept in small cages and their living conditions are very different from the life they are adapted to. It doesn't have to be that way. Project 1882 works to dismantle the fur industry and the fur trade.

Historical progress: 1.5 million approved signatures for a Fur Free Europe

In March, the European citizens' initiative Fur Free Europe ended, an initiative launched by Project 1882 in Sweden, who was also the driving force behind the campaign. The validation of the collected signatures from EU citizens has now been completed and the initiative passed the limit by a good margin with over 1.5 million valid signatures. The proposal will now move forward to the various EU bodies, where a process of the initiative will commence.

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The citizens' initiative Fur Free Europe was launched in May 2022, where Project 1882 along with 80 other European organisations is behind the initiative. The goal is to ban fur farming and trade of fur products throughout the European Union. After cross-checking all signatures, the initiative has now been confirmed to have 1.5 million approved names, of which nearly 100,000 of them were submitted by Project 1882 in Sweden.

– 1.5 million EU citizens have had their say. It is time for the fur industry to become an industry of the past. I look forward to the proposal being taken forward and hope that the European Parliament will support the proposal and its citizens' opinion, says Camilla Bergvall, President of Project 1882.

Fur Free Europe is now the tenth approved European citizens' initiative, out of a total of 101 previously commenced. Of these successful ten, five of them concern animal rights and animal welfare issues – where Project 1882 is behind three of them.

– This again is a very clear sign that citizens of Sweden and the rest of Europe care about how animals are treated. It is absolutely crucial that public opinion is also reflected in political action, concludes Camilla Bergvall.

What is next

The next step in the process is for the initiative to be presented in a public hearing in the European Parliament. After which the European Commission must respond to the initiative within six months, which may result in a bill in line with the opinions of the European citizens.

Project 1882 has long worked for a complete stop and ban of the fur industry, and this is a big step in the right direction for it to become a reality.

Michaela Lindquist

Fur industry

In the fur industry, animals are bred and killed solely because people want to wear their furs. The animals are kept in small cages and their living conditions are very different from the life they are adapted to. It doesn't have to be that way. Project 1882 works to dismantle the fur industry and the fur trade.

Project 1882 exposes troublesome links between mink farms and factory farming

Project 1882 shows, in a new report, that the mink farms in Sweden directly contribute to the death of a minimum of 30 million fish per year, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of minks killed for their fur. Through the feed production with links to depleted seas and chicken factory farming, the report shows economic incentives between mink farms and other factory farms. Project 1882 wants to see a ban on mink farms as the main solution.

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The troublesome conditions in the fur industry are already well known and the collective opinion against mink farms is strong in Sweden. The new report shows the problems that are less known, that Swedish mink farms also contribute to extensive suffering in other species and at least 30 million individual lives – per year. Above that, the mink farms contribute to some funding of chicken factory farming which has created economical motivation for farmers to protect the existence of mink farms.

– Mink farms do not only contribute to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of minks every year, but also the death of millions of fishes which impact the surrounding seas. The arguments for a ban on mink farms were many to begin with, but will only increase with this new report. It is time for politicians to act on it, said Camilla Bergvall, president of Project 1882.

The new report from Project 1882 highlights the extensive sustainability risks that mink farms contribute to in agriculture and fisheries. As a part of the report the use of slaughter waste is also illustrated, and the importance of introducing measures to reduce both the suffering and the food waste that are ongoing in fisheries and factory farms in Sweden. There is also a need to reduce the slaughter of animals overall, to reduce the amount of slaughter waste.

– Animal welfare is evidently a part of sustainability and it is not sustainable to breed carnivores in small wire cages in a system that also contributes to suffering in other industries. The report Project 1882 published is more proof that mink farms are unsustainable and need to be phased out immediately, Camilla Bergvall concluded.

Four key conclusions

There would be many positive effects of sustainability for several animal species and Sweden's nature if the Swedish mink farms closed.
There are intimate economic links between mink farms and other factory farms, especially within the chicken industry and in fisheries.
Slaughterhouse waste in Sweden is increasing with rising animal production. It is currently not used in a sustainable way.
The animal rights movement may risk creating greater support for mink farms by the farming industry as a whole – and greater resistance to change to more animal-friendly operations – if hateful and violent methods are used.

Read the report “The troublesome links between mink farms and factory farming”.

Anna Harenius

anna.harenius@djurensratt.se

Fur industry

In the fur industry, animals are bred and killed solely because people want to wear their furs. The animals are kept in small cages and their living conditions are very different from the life they are adapted to. It doesn't have to be that way. Project 1882 works to dismantle the fur industry and the fur trade.

Reduced disease control at mink farms in 2023 – new farms allowed in Sweden

Photo: Shutterstock

After 31st of December there are no longer any restrictions on mink farms in Sweden. The restrictions to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in 2022 weren’t prolonged. The Board of Agriculture still says that there is a risk for disease introduction to minks, but that the Swedish mink association’s health programme could reduce the risks. Project 1882 is very critical to this.

After 31st of December there are no longer any restrictions on mink farms in Sweden. The restrictions to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in 2022 weren’t prolonged. The Board of Agriculture still says that there is a risk for disease introduction to minks, but that the Swedish mink association’s health programme could reduce the risks. Djurens Rätt is very critical to this.

This is a translated version of this article.

– I am very concerned that the mink industry will be responsible to do something that they couldn’t handle before – to keep the minks healthy. Even if the risk for humans is lower, it is still not negligible. There is a risk that minks become seriously ill and die in the already inadequate environment they are living in, said Camilla Bergvall, president of Project 1882.

Minks can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, which resulted in big outbreaks at mink farms all over the world during the pandemic. Movement of live minks and establishment of new mink farms therefore were forbidden in Sweden during 2022, but will again be allowed during 2023.

The decision was made by the Board of Agriculture and is, like in 2022 when the breeding ban was lifted, based on that the risks for human deaths now are lower. The earlier decision was appealed by Project 1882, with no result. A year ago some restrictions remained, even though the breeding was allowed. But the authorities will during 2023 leave all surveillance of mink health to the Swedish Mink Association’s, Svensk Mink, own programme called Minkhälsan, and remove all the restrictions.

Projekt 1882 has criticized Minkhälsan before in an extensive report, and the conclusion is that it only demands one more visit by a veterinarian per year, compared to what the legislation already requires. The last years have also made it clear that several mink farms didn’t follow the restrictions during the pandemic, and that there are long periods when they aren’t controlled. One farm was infected during 2021, even though the humans were vaccinated and the breeding ban was in place. The whole farm can become infected if only one single worker comes in with infection, with higher mortality and respiration problems in the minks as a consequence.

Risks for public health remain

Transmission of disease on mink farms continued during 2022, for example in Poland. All transmission between minks risks a virus evolution that could make the disease more dangerous for humans.

The authorities state that a reassessment can be needed if the transmission between humans and minks increases. But where that limit lies is unclear.

– More needs to be done now, when the authorities have released their grip on mink farms. To make a safe society, without mink farms, the politicians need to act. And it is urgent, said Camilla Bergvall.

The EU could in the spring bring forward a new decision that would demand stricter testing on minks than Sweden now does.

In Denmark the mink farms are allowed to start again in 2023, after two years of closure after the mass culling. But they have strict conditions with comprehensive testing and restrictions, as well as economical support for those that instead chose to close their farms. This has made almost all previous Danish mink farmers to instead invest in other businesses, without the exploitation of animals.

Read Project 1882’s report on how the politicians should phase out the mink farms (Swedish).

Anna Harenius

anna.harenius@djurensratt.se

Fur industry

In the fur industry, animals are bred and killed solely because people want to wear their furs. The animals are kept in small cages and their living conditions are very different from the life they are adapted to. It doesn't have to be that way. Project 1882 works to dismantle the fur industry and the fur trade.

Help us close the fur industry for good in all of the European Union – sign the citizens’ initiative Fur Free Europe today!

Sign the petition

Close the mink farms in Sweden permanently

Foto: Shutterstock

Project 1882, together with more than 40 organizations, today present a joint appeal to the Swedish government and parliament. After SARS-CoV-2 was spread throughout the majority of Sweden's mink farms last autumn, the government introduced a temporary breeding ban in 2021. To avoid the risk of infections spreading in the future, the organizations in the joint appeal urge the government to produce a decommissioning plan for mink farming in Sweden.

Djurens Rätt, together with more than 40 organizations, today present a joint appeal to the Swedish government and parliament. After SARS-CoV-2 was spread throughout the majority of Sweden's mink farms last autumn, the government introduced a temporary breeding ban in 2021. To avoid the risk of infections spreading in the future, the organizations in the joint appeal urge the government to produce a decommissioning plan for mink farming in Sweden.

This January, the Swedish government announced a total stop of breeding minks in Sweden in 2021. The decision came after almost a year of recurring alarm reports about the spread of Covid-19 among minks on Swedish mink farms. Since then, the government decided to compensate the mink farms in Sweden with SEK 60 million to help the farms to survive.

Now Project 1882, together with 44 other organizations, has written a joint appeal to the Swedish government and parliament, with the Minister of Agriculture Jennie Nilsson at the head, with a call that the mink farms should be closed down permanently. This is in view of the extensive risks of the spread of infection that are closely linked to the unethical attitude of mink farming.

Read the joint appeal here

Linn Åkesson

Fur industry

In the fur industry, animals are bred and killed solely because people want to wear their furs. The animals are kept in small cages and their living conditions are very different from the life they are adapted to. It doesn't have to be that way. Project 1882 works to dismantle the fur industry and the fur trade.

Close the mink farms in Sweden permanently

– The fur industry is an unethical and outdated industry that belongs in the history books. It has become painfully clear during the current pandemic that we can not keep animals close in small grid cages, says Camilla Bergvall, President of Djurens Rätt.

In Europe, 18 countries have already implemented or decided to ban mink farms and developed decommissioning plans. This applies to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and France, among others. The latest addition was Estonia, which announced in the beginning of June that they will ban fur farms.

Among Sweden's parliamentary parties, Miljöpartiet, Vänsterpartiet and Liberalerna have expressed that they want to see a ban on mink breeding in Sweden. But other parties have remained silent in regard to a potential ban.

– It is up to politicians now to act for the good of both animals and humans. It's time for Sweden to close down the mink farms!, Camilla Bergvall concludes.

Fur farms in Sweden

Every year, about 500 000 minks are killed in Sweden's fur industry, but in 2021 this was stopped due to the role of infection on mink farms during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most minks used to live to the age of only six months and live their whole lives in small grid cages. Today, there are about 33 mink farms left in Sweden, with about 90 000 breeding females, most of which are in Blekinge, Sweden.

The decline of the Swedish fur industry

Photo: Shutterstock

From over 1 300 farms to less than 40 in 50 years. The Swedish fur industry is declining at a rapid pace, and now it’s going faster than ever.

Fur farming came to Sweden in the 1920’s. Over 1300 businesses were active when it was most economically viable in the 1970’s. They farmed foxes and chinchillas, but mainly minks. After the 1970’s the farms went fewer and bigger with the same total production of around 2 million pelts a year. But when the then new Animal Welfare Act in 1988 stated that animals should be able to behave naturally, the industry started to become questioned from a scientific point of view. Shortly after that the government stated that foxes need to be able to socialize, dig and move around. That led to the closing of all fox fur farms in 2001 when the legislation came into force, because of no economically viable legal alternative to wire cages.

The amount of farms had then declined to around 200 farms in the country.

The chinchillas and minks were also discussed in relation to this legislation, but got no specific demands on how they should be able to behave naturally in the cages until 2012. Chinchillas would after a short transition period only be kept in larger cages with enrichment. No chinchilla farmers could live up to that criteria and all went bankrupt. The last chinchilla farm was closed in 2014.

Around 80 mink farms were then left.

Since 2014 mink farming has also been on the decline, when it started to be mandatory to have climbing cages, and enrichment of some sort. The high production costs with a low price for pelts on the market turned many farmers into bankruptcy. It is now estimated that only around 40 farms are left, and that they produce approximately half of the number of pelts that they said were produced in 2018. At most 500 000 pelts. The corona pandemic has made the sale of pelts decline even more and it is estimated that no fur farms can handle it economically if they don’t have other businesses than minks. On top of that, they are criticized because of the risk of infection of covid-19 on minks.

If the market for mink pelts continues to be as it is at the moment, we will probably see the last mink farm in Sweden within five years.

Anna Harenius

anna.harenius@djurensratt.se

Fur industry

In the fur industry, animals are bred and killed solely because people want to wear their furs. The animals are kept in small cages and their living conditions are very different from the life they are adapted to. It doesn't have to be that way. Project 1882 works to dismantle the fur industry and the fur trade.

Fur industry

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