VOICES: As a European Citizens’ Initiative to ban all fur farms and farmed fur products across the continent gains momentum, we’re exploring the progress away from fur Europe has seen so far, and why it’s so important. 

Just recently, Bulgaria banned the breeding and importation of minks, effectively banning mink fur farming. This makes Bulgaria the latest in a long line of European countries shifting away from the archaic fur industry. Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Serbia and the United Kingdom have all legally prohibited fur farming. Nations including Belgium, Slovakia and Estonia are all in the process of phasing it out themselves. 

Given the cruelty involved in the fur trade, these legislative changes can’t come fast enough. As much as 95% of all fur comes from animals confined to wire cages in barren factory-farms around the world, where around 100 million individuals are killed each year. 

Life on fur farms

Denied the most basic of their freedoms, animals like minks, foxes, chinchillas and raccoon dogs never touch their paws to soil, and are unable to follow their natural instincts. While foxes naturally roam 10 square kilometres of their native land, on fur farms, they receive just one square metre of space to circle for the entirety of their tragic, shortened lives. That’s 10 million times less space. Though mink love to swim and can dive as deep as 30 metres below water’s surface, those destined to become coats, beanie bobbles and fluffy key-chains never feel water gliding through their fur. 

The tight confines these individuals face take a heavy toll, with stereotypic displays of intense psychological distress all too commonly seen. An investigation into fur farms in major production country Finland, by animal rights organisation Oikeutta Eläimille, revealed what reports show to be widespread: self mutilation, cannibalism and other signs of severe psychosis and stress. Too, foxes in Finland are bred to have more skin and fur for sale were so heavy they had difficulty standing properly, their feet bent. While the lives of those trapped in fur farms are nothing short of nightmarish, they are short. Killed young through gassing or invasive internal electrocution, no part of fur farming could ever be acceptable.

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A fur-free future

As designers move away from fur – with 70% of the most profitable luxury brands, and far more mainstream retailers maintaining fur-free policies – new, more innovative materials are taking the place of animal fur.

A 100 per cent biodegradable and commercially-compostable faux fur labelled GACHA was recently released. Fashion magazines such as InStyle and ELLE have banned fur from their pages, and many top models, photographers and creatives in the industry have pledged never to wear these animals.

This progress is monumental, with fur-bearing animals likely to be the first nearly wholly freed from profit-driven exploitation by human societies. Pushing a fashion industry free from animal fur forward, is a newly launched European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), calling for a Fur Free Europe. 

Unlike a regular petition, an ECI which receives one million signatures across one year obliges the European Commission to respond and take action. A ban on all fur farms and garments, accessories and other products from them is entirely possible across the entire continent if we work together to collect enough signatures from European citizens.

Emma Hakansson is the author of How Veganism Can Save Us, and the founding director of Collective Fashion Justice, a not-for-profit dedicated to creating a fashion industry which prioritises the life and wellbeing of all animals; humans and non-humans, as well as the planet, before profit.

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