Together with other countries, Germany is campaigning for an EU-wide ban on fur farming. “It’s absurd that millions of minks are still kept in Europe to make a luxury product from them that is a thing of the past,” said Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens) of the German Press Agency on request. He will therefore work together with his colleagues from Austria and the Netherlands for a ban on fur farming in the EU.
Germany, Austria and the Netherlands wanted to ask the EU Commission at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers this Monday in Luxembourg to draw up a proposal for a corresponding ban and to examine whether a ban on the sale and marketing of fur products on the European market is possible were.
Animal rights activists repeatedly criticize the keeping of mink and other fur-bearing animals. For example, the website of the German Animal Welfare Association states that furs are products that are bought with animal cruelty. The animals are often kept in cramped conditions and are deprived of the opportunity to behave in a species-appropriate manner.
Austria’s animal welfare minister, Johannes Rauch, emphasized that modern animal welfare must rule out fur production as a matter of principle, since it can never be ethically justified to keep animals purely for fur production. “Additionally, mink fur farms posed a significant public health risk during the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic,” he said. Denmark announced in 2020 that it would kill all mink in the country. The reason was the concern that the corona virus could continue to mutate in the animals and spread to humans.
In addition to the three EU countries, numerous EU citizens also want a ban on fur farming. A corresponding initiative collected more than 1.5 million signatures within a year. According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, citing EU information, around eight million animals are still kept in around 1,000 fur farms in twelve EU countries. In Germany, the last fur farm ceased operations in 2019. (dpa)