It is astonishing that fur farms still even exist, given that they have been exposed as extremely cruel facilities that also pose terrible threats to public health. And yet, even knowing how horrific these places are, each investigation we carry out to expose and end this cruelty shocks me anew.
Our recent investigation in late October looked at fur farms in Finland; Humane Society International/UK partnered with Finnish animal protection organization Oikeutta eläimille to obtain this footage. Because of the public health risks, our investigators took full biosecurity protection measures.
Finland is one of the last remaining European countries where farming animals for fur remains legal. The Finnish trade boasts that almost 100% of its fox fur farms are certified by the SAGA scheme, a set of guidelines promulgated by the Finnish auction house SAGA that promises “the highest level of animal welfare.”
Despite that bold claim, our investigators found foxes, kept in small, barren cages for their entire lives, suffering from raw open wounds, weeping infected eyes and deformed splayed feet. And the method typically used to kill foxes at these facilities is anal electrocution. This is apparently what we can expect of the “highest level of animal welfare” on fur farms.
It's time for the fur industry to stop lying to itself and its consumers and admit it: There is no way to make fur farming anything but abhorrently cruel to its animal victims—and dangerous to people everywhere.
In recent years, there have been alarming outbreaks of COVID-19 and highly pathogenic avian influenza on more than 500 fur farms in Europe and North America. After the avian flu outbreaks on fur farms in Finland in 2023, Finnish authorities introduced some biosecurity measures to prevent disease spread: These included requiring the use of netting to prevent wild birds from accessing the housed animals’ cages and their food and drinking water, and mandatory carcass testing periods. The netting is required to be checked regularly, and any birds observed inside must be removed immediately.
And yet, our investigation found these regulations being flouted. In many instances the netting failed to cover the full length of the cages. Investigators found the decaying body of a wild gull just beneath a row of caged foxes.
