The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Fleecewife on November 07, 2020, 10:42:55 pm
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I really, truly thought that mink farming had been made illegal throughout Europe, and was only found in places like China. Now suddenly I am told that countries such as Spain, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands continue to farm mink, keeping them in tiny, barren cages for a miserable and short life. The stresses of living in such captive conditions must have contributed to them catching Coronavirus from their keepers, as have some other animals in captivity.
I simply don't understand how people can luxuriate in wearing the skins of animals kept in such utter, utter misery. Calling this 'farming' is a huge misnomer - it's torture, pure and simple.
And whilst I'm ranting :rant: how disgusting is the existence of Chinese 'wet markets', where wild animals and domesticated ones too are kept in cages and chopped to death in front of those who buy them, then prepared and cooked on the spot, with no hygiene, no humanity and no need to exist at all.
I don't usually make comments about this sort of thing, but suddenly I am sickened by it all.
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Quite; it was a real shock to find it being reported that there are a million+ of farmed mink across Europe that will need to be eradicated due to them having contracted a Covid virus. They will have been gassed anyway for their fur idc, BUT the point is who is still buying mink coats for goodness sake ?!
And how many fur coats would a million+ mink skins produce? That has to be a LOT of fur coats right !?
Clearly there are loads of folk across the world with no conscience/awareness to this day and too much money: what a world !!
[I'm now also wondering where the million+ of skinned mink carcasses end up !!?? I've not noticed mink meat being mentioned in the ingredients of anything I've ever bought for either my personal or my dogs' consumption! Something or someone will be eating this mink meat somewhere though - the mink farmers won't be throwing millions of pounds (lb) of meat protein away!]
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Same here - where do all of those mink pelts end up? I thought wearing real fur was a thing of the past?
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I suppose mink 'farming' is similar to battery hens, in respect of the conditions, although there are far fewer animals involved. I'm told it was all due to end in Europe in 2024, but that has moved forward, so something positive about Covid. Hopefully the animal rights movement won't get a chance to release them before they are slaughtered because we all know what a devastating effect it had on wildlife in the UK.
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Fur is big in America and not rare in wintertime Spain, Italy, guessing many other countries still purchase as it’s worth big money and traded globally. China fur farms are horrendous. They don’t even kill the animals!
There’s plenty of people don’t see animals as we do in the uk.
They don’t feel the the stress of the cats or mink in cages waiting to die. But then most people in the uk don’t get sad about fish left to die on ship decks or for using rat poison. Or buying products from premises which have used rat poisons. It’s not on most people’s radar. Ethics are a strange, cultural thing. Used to watch programs about tribal people; they were all in tune with nature and life and sometimes quite cruel.
I wore fur all last winter: sheepskin; to my knowledge there’s no battery sheep and it will have been eaten. Keeps me very warm and can end up on the compost when knackered. Full length old sheepskin coats can be bought for £25 off eBay. Yet this also got me multiple comments of things like: “I thought fur was illegal!” and “I wouldn’t support the fur trade!”
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I wore fur all last winter: sheepskin; to my knowledge there’s no battery sheep and it will have been eaten. Keeps me very warm and can end up on the compost when knackered. Full length old sheepskin coats can be bought for £25 off eBay. Yet this also got me multiple comments of things like: “I thought fur was illegal!” and “I wouldn’t support the fur trade!”
My sheep have wool not fur ...... am I missing a trick here?
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I suppose mink 'farming' is similar to battery hens, in respect of the conditions, although there are far fewer animals involved. I'm told it was all due to end in Europe in 2024, but that has moved forward, so something positive about Covid. Hopefully the animal rights movement won't get a chance to release them before they are slaughtered because we all know what a devastating effect it had on wildlife in the UK.
Mink farms look exactly like rabbit farms. The same sort of cages.
Not only mink is farmed throughout Europe but also Foxes (silver, black and all sorts of colours) as well as rabbits (for fur as well as meat), nutria, and some other species of furry creatures.
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Quite; it was a real shock to find it being reported that there are a million+ of farmed mink across Europe that will need to be eradicated due to them having contracted a Covid virus. They will have been gassed anyway for their fur idc, BUT the point is who is still buying mink coats for goodness sake ?!
And how many fur coats would a million+ mink skins produce? That has to be a LOT of fur coats right !?
Clearly there are loads of folk across the world with no conscience/awareness to this day and too much money: what a world !!
[I'm now also wondering where the million+ of skinned mink carcasses end up !!?? I've not noticed mink meat being mentioned in the ingredients of anything I've ever bought for either my personal or my dogs' consumption! Something or someone will be eating this mink meat somewhere though - the mink farmers won't be throwing millions of pounds (lb) of meat protein away!]
Just in Denmark they ordered slaughter of over 3 million! Thats just in one country.
Those ones will most likely be incenerated (not to spread covid.
Usually they would probably end up in dog food. Just like almost all spent layer hens.
I rrad an article once about one of the last commercisl breeders of nutria in Poland, and he had a contract with a zoo to feed carcases to lions, tigers, wolves etc.
All of my grandparents used to keep nutria for their own use. The whole family used to wear the furry coats and hats and meat was made into sausages. Im talking about 1960s.
https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-06/How-do-you-kill-17m-mink-sick-with-a-COVID-19-mutation--Vb9hjGXbwI/share_amp.html
This article is actually talking about 17mln mink in Denmark alone. Have a look at pictures too.
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I also read something today that said [edit] Denmark was "disposing" of 17 million mink - that number is just so hard to believe. (I hoping someone missed out a decimal point ??)
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I was shocked. I had no idea mink fur was still being used. There are so many alternatives without having to kill animals for vanity, why is it still happening?
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I was shocked. I had no idea mink fur was still being used. There are so many alternatives without having to kill animals for vanity, why is it still happening?
Their argument is that its better for the environment that producing plastic fur made of oil. Certainly would keep you warmer.
Its sikiloar argument fornusing sheep or cow skins- but obviously the main difference is cows and sheep are mainly kept for their meat or milk - skins are byproduct. With foxes or mink its opposite...
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I was shocked. I had no idea mink fur was still being used. There are so many alternatives without having to kill animals for vanity, why is it still happening?
Their argument is that its better for the environment that producing plastic fur made of oil. Certainly would keep you warmer.
Its sikiloar argument fornusing sheep or cow skins- but obviously the main difference is cows and sheep are mainly kept for their meat or milk - skins are byproduct. With foxes or mink its opposite...
Might it not be more that cattle and sheep are accepted as prey animals whereas foxes and mink are predators, so for millennia have been taboo as food for humans? This means that the only reason they are trapped is for their fur which makes them a 'luxury', whereas prey animals are seen as for common useage. Just to explain the psychology of folks' thinking. For me, I'm happy to use the skins of food animals as that is not the primary reason they are caught or bred, which is for food. To not wear their skins and fibre, to bin them, is simply wasteful. Of course for people who do not eat meat, then wearing any animal by-product is unnacceptable and they seem to be happy to use petroleum products in spite of the cost to the planet.
What really bugs me is two things: that some people are happy to kill animals (or have them killed on their behalf) purely so they can wear their skins and revel in the 'luxury' and to be seen to be rich; and secondly that these same people give absolutely no thought to how the animals are kept, and whether or not those animals might prefer to keep their skins themselves and not to live in such cruel conditions. There has been so much publicity about the cruel conditions of fur farming that I don't I see how anyone can claim not to know what goes on. Having said that, I had no idea it was still going on, at least not here.
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I thought sale of fur clothes was illegal in Uk but can buy real fox fur edged clothes from House of Bruar. Surprised me. (also looks beautiful)
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I thought sale of fur clothes was illegal in Uk but can buy real fox fur edged clothes from House of Bruar. Surprised me. (also looks beautiful)
You can't breed animals just for fur but sale of fox, mink and etc furs is everywhere - even ebay.
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Some thought provoking comments here. For now though, just two additional comments:
Animal welfare should be the over-riding condition no matter what their intended end-use is.
The banning of mink farming in the UK is just another example of the UK being ahead of (and at odds with) our EU neighbours !!
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A report on French TV last week showed the Countries in Europe (including the UK) which had already banned or were ending mink farming in 2024 (now brought forward with Covid), which is basically all of them with three exceptions- France, Italy and Spain. So it's not an EU directive, it's a choice of member states.
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Not sure if its been said but I use mink oil on my boots makes them last a long time and very waterproof maybe all waste goes in to making the mink oil . ?