Inside the Fur Industry: Factory Farms
www.peta.org
Eighty-five percent of the fur industry's skins come
from animals living captive on fur factory farms.(1) These farms can hold
thousands of animals, and the practices used to farm them is remarkably
uniform around the globe. As with other intensive-confinement animal farms,
the methods used on fur factory farms are designed to maximize profits,
always at the expense of the animals.
Painful and Short Lives
The most farmed fur-bearing animal is the mink,
followed by the fox.
Chinchillas, lynxes, and even hamsters are also farmed
for their fur. (2) Sixty-four percent of fur farms are in Northern Europe,
11 percent are in North America, and the rest are dispersed throughout the
world, in countries such as Argentina and Russia.(3) Mink farmers usually
breed female minks once a year. There are about three or four surviving kits
for each litter, and they are killed when they are about half a year old,
depending on what country they are in, after the first hard freeze.
Minks used for breeding are kept for four to five
years.(4) The animals-housed in unbearably small cages-live with fear,
stress, disease, parasites, and other physical and psychological hardships,
all for the sake of a global industry that makes billions of dollars
annually.
Rabbits are slaughtered by the millions for meat,
particularly in China, Italy, and Spain. Once considered a mere byproduct of
this consumption, the rabbit fur industry demands the thicker pelt of an
older animal (meat rabbits are killed at the age of 10 to 12 weeks).
The United Nations reports that "few skins are now
retrieved from slaughterhouses," and countries such as France are killing as
many as 70 million rabbits a year for fur, used in clothing, as lures in
flyfishing, and for trim on craft items.(5)
Life on the "Ranch"
To cut costs, fur farmers pack animals into small
cages, preventing them from taking more than a few steps back and forth.
This crowding and confinement is especially distressing to minks-solitary
animals who may occupy as much as 2,500 acres of wetland habitat in the
wild. (6) The anguish of life in a cage leads minks to self-mutilate- biting
at their skin, tails, and feet-and frantically pace and circle endlessly.
Zoologists at Oxford University who studied captive minks found that despite
generations of being bred for fur, minks have not been domesticated and
suffer greatly in captivity, especially if they are not given the
opportunity to swim.(7) Foxes, raccoons, and other animals suffer equally
and have been found to cannibalize each other as a reaction to their crowded
confinement.
Animals on fur factory farms are fed meat byproducts
considered unfit for human consumption. Water is provided by a nipple system
which often freezes in the winter or may fail because of human error.
Pests and Parasites
Animals on fur factory farms are more susceptible to
diseases than their free-roaming counterparts. Contagious diseases such as
pneumonia are passed from cage to cage rapidly, as are fleas, ticks, lice,
and mites. And disease-carrying flies thrive in the piles of rotting wastes
that collect under the cages for months. Video footage and photos taken by
undercover investigators show animals suffering from severe infections and
injuries, untreated and left to die slowly.
Unnatural Habitats
Fur factory farm cages are often kept in open sheds
that provide little to no protection from wind or harsh weather. Their fur
alone is not enough to keep them warm in the winter, and in the summer,
minks swelter because they have no water in which to cool themselves. When
minks learn to shower themselves by pressing on their drinking water supply
nipples, farmers will modify the nipples to cut off even this meager relief.
Poison and Pain
No federal humane slaughter law protects animals on fur
factory farms, and killing methods are gruesome. Because fur farmers care
only about preserving the quality of the fur, they use slaughter methods
that keep the pelts intact but which can result in extreme suffering for the
animals. Small animals may be crammed into boxes and poisoned with hot,
unfiltered engine exhaust from a truck.
Engine exhaust is not always lethal, and some animals
wake up while being skinned. Larger animals have clamps or a rod applied to
their mouths while rods are inserted into their anuses, and they are
painfully electrocuted. Other animals are poisoned with strychnine, which
suffocates them by paralyzing their muscles in painful rigid cramps.
Gassing, decompression chambers, and neck-snapping are other common fur-farm
slaughter methods.
The fur industry refuses to condemn even blatantly
cruel killing methods. Genital electrocution, deemed "unacceptable" by the
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) 1993 Panel on Euthanasia, is
a fur factory farm killing method that causes animals the pain of cardiac
arrest while they are fully conscious. In 1994, Indiana became the first
state to file criminal charges against a fur factory farm after PETA
investigators documented genital electrocution at V-R Chinchillas. The
chinchilla fur industry considers electrocution and neck-breaking
"acceptable."(8)
In 1995, one district attorney filed charges against
pelt supplier Frank Parsons of Salisbury, Md., for injecting a mixture of
rubbing alcohol and weed-killer into the chests of minks. PETA undercover
investigators videotaped Parsons using an illegal pesticide,
Blackleaf 40, to painfully kill the minks.
Would You Wear Your Dog?
An undercover investigation by the Humane Society of
the United States, reported in a 1998 Dateline NBC piece, revealed that dog
and cat fur is a multimillion-dollar industry in Asia and found that coats
and toys made with domestic dog fur are being sold in the U.S. "There are no
federal laws preventing anyone from importing dog and cat fur into this
country," reported Dateline. "If the imported item costs less than $150, the
importer doesn't even have to reveal what it's made of."
Dateline footage shows a German shepherd, tail wagging
and head stuck in a restraint, moments before he is skinned alive. A cat,
crowded in a cage, watches and waits his turn, as one by one, his cagemates
are choked, slung up, and hanged just inches away.(9) New legislation
outlawed the import or sale of clothing containing dog or cat fur, but the
fur still enters the country illegally since it is intentionally mislabeled
and can only be detected by expensive DNA testing.
Environmental Destruction
Contrary to fur-industry propaganda, fur production
destroys the environment. The energy needed to produce a real fur coat from
ranch-raised animal skins is approximately 20 times that needed for a fake
fur.(10) Nor does fur biodegrade, thanks to the chemical treatment applied
to stop the fur from rotting. The process of using these chemicals is also
dangerous as it can cause water contamination.
About 44 pounds of feces are excreted per mink skinned
by fur farmers. Based on the total number of minks skinned in the U.S. in
1999, which was 2.81 million, mink factory farms generate approximately
62,000 tons of manure per year. One result is nearly 1,000 tons of
phosphorus, which wreaks havoc in water ecosystems. (11)
Fur in Sheep's Clothing
As fur sales decline, sales of shearling-the skin of
lambs with the wool attached-have risen. Some fur manufacturers have
actually taken to disguising mink as shearling.(12) Many people are unaware
of shearling's origins or that shearling sales are an
incentive for sheep ranchers to increase their stock, thereby adding to the
plight of sheep (see PETA factsheet "Inside the Wool Industry").
In Afghanistan, karakul sheep are now raised to produce
lambs for the high-end market in "Persian lamb" coats and hats. For
"top-quality" lamb skin, the mother is killed just before giving birth and
her fetus is cut out. The pelts of the unborn lambs are prized in the
fashion world for their silk-like sheen. It takes the skin from an entire
lamb to make one karakul hat.(13)
Industry in Decline
Austria and the U.K. have banned fur factory farms, and
the Netherlands began phasing out fox and chinchilla farming in April
1998.(14) In the U.S., there are approximately 324 mink farms left, down
from 1,027 in 1988.(15) In a sign of the times, supermodel Naomi Campbell
was denied entry to a trendy New York club because she was wearing fur. Said
the club's owner, "I really love animals, and I wanted us to be the good
guys."(16)
Humane Choices
Consumers need to know that every fur coat, lining, or
item of trim represents the intense suffering of several dozen animals,
whether they were trapped, ranched, or even unborn. These cruelties will end
only when the public refuses to buy or wear fur. Those who learn the facts
about fur must help educate others, for the animals' sake. For more
information, visit
www.FurIsDead.com .
References
1)"Facts on Furs," International Fur Trade Federation,
2000.
2)"To Make 1 of These . You Need 183 of These," E.S.
Magazine, 27 Oct. 2000.
3)"Fur Farming," International Fur Trade Federation,
2000.
4)"General Livestock," The Digital Daily, U.S. Internal
Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury.
5)Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, The Rabbit: Husbandry, Health and Production, No. 21 (Rome: 1997).
6)"Minks," The Nebraska Game & Parks Commission .
7)"What Captive Minks Miss Most-Swimming," Reuters, 28
Feb. 2001.
8)"Standard Guidelines for the Operation of Chinchilla
Ranches," Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Mar. 1998.
9)Dateline NBC, 15 Dec. 1998.
10)Gregory H. Smith, "Energy Study of Real vs.
Synthetic Furs," University of Michigan, Sep. 1979.
11)S.J. Bursian, G.M. Hill, R.R. Mitchell, and A.C.
Napolitano, "The Use of Phytase as a Feed Supplement to Enhance Utilization
and Reduce Excretion of Phosphorous in Mink," 2003 Fur Rancher Blue Book of
Fur Farming, Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University.
12)Joan Verdon, "The Golden Fleece," Hackensack Record,
21 Sep. 2002.
13)Paul Haven, "Karzai's Hat Made From Lamb Fetus,"
Associated Press, 23 Apr. 2002.
14)Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, "Commission Report
Reveals Serious Welfare Problems in Fur Farming," 20 Dec. 2001.
15)Sandy Parker, Sandy Parker Reports: Weekly
International Fur News, 13 Oct. 2003.
16)"Fur Flies Out of Fashion," MX, 13 Sep. 2002, p. 30.
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