Fur farms

Eighty-five percent of the fur industry’s skins come from animals on fur farms—dismal, often filthy places where thousands of animals are usually kept in wire cages for their entire lives. As on fur farms where animals are raised for food, the methods used on fur farms are designed to maximize profits, always at the expense of the animals.

To cut costs, fur farmers pack animals into unbearably small cages, preventing them from taking more than a few steps in any direction or doing anything that is natural and important to them, such as running, swimming, making nests, and finding mates. In those fur farms many animals go insane under these conditions. The anguish and frustration of life in a cage leads many animals to self-mutilate, biting at their skin, tail, and feet; frantically pace and circle endlessly; and even cannibalize their cagemates.

Rows of cages are often housed in giant, dark, filthy sheds or barns where the ammonia from the animals’ accumulated urine and feces burns their eyes and lungs, or they may simply be lined up outdoors, where animals have no protection from bone-chilling cold, driving rain, or sweltering heat. Parasites and disease run rampant on fur farms, making these animals’ already miserable lives even more unbearable.

Animals on fur farms are fed with meat by products considered unfit for human consumption. Water on fur farms is provided by a nipple system, which often freezes in the winter.

Unfortunately, no federal humane slaughter law protects animals on fur farms (fur factories) but they should, 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 that can result in extreme suffering for the animals. Some animals even wake up while they are being skinned.

“And how are they slaughtered, sir?” Shoot an answer doctor, coupled with a look that reads a trace of guilt: “The cervical dislocation.” Aham. That they break the head…. Then I show how: ”It takes just like that, bang, feel nothing, died on the spot” (no, that was not alive). How cute! (  We’re talking about their bright future of chinchilla’s  fur farms. But not only them.

The fur industry refuses to condemn even blatantly cruel killing methods in these fur farms.

As a consumer, you can help put an end to this cruel practice by refusing to buy any products made with fur, including fur trim.