Horror revealed on Swedish fur farms

Djurrättsalliansen (the Animal Rights Alliance) have recently published the results of an in-depth investigation into the Swedish fur industry. Over a year and a half, one fifth of Sweden’s mink farms were visited, revealing stereotypical behaviour, sick and injured animals, dead animals still in their cages, dirty cages and instances of cannibalism. Although the inhumanity of incarcerating minks in mesh cages no bigger than 90 x 30cm is obvious, this investigation has produced up-to-date, concrete proof, and has shown the horrific details of the animals’ lives and deaths:

We understood that the mortality rate would be high. Several reports show that one out of every four or five animals die before they reach 6 months of age. But we didn’t know how they die – and how they suffer. Now we know. We have seen pups chewing on their dead littermates, entire litters where every animals has had its ear bitten off; young animals with gaping wounds on their heads; and fully-grown mink that twist and turn in agony, screaming in panic from pain and illness that minutes later ceases but only with their death.

In 2003, the Swedish Commission of Inquiry into the Fur Industry gave Swedish fur farms until 2010 to comply with the Animal Welfare Act, which clearly states that all animals must be allowed to express their natural behaviours and that they must be protected from unnecessary suffering. With the general election fast approaching, activists are working hard for a nationwide ban on fur farming, and targetting in particular the heel-dragging of the ruling Alliance coalition.

For more information, check the campaign site or watch the video below: