European Campaign for Animal Rights Calls for EU-Wide Fur Farm Ban

BRUSSELS, September 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

The European Campaign for Animal Rights today launched a campaign to ban fur farming across Europe. The campaign is particularly concerned about the plight of mink being farmed in the European Union.

Speaking today in Paris, campaign director Jennifer Hamerman called on MEPs to take action to outlaw fur farming in Europe, stating: "The practice of fur farming is cruel. Mink are essentially wild animals. They have not been selectively bred for any other characteristic than their fur. Mink are by nature unsuited to life in captivity, especially in the dirty and cramped cages used on fur farms. The European Commission's own Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare (SCAHAW) supports this view in its 2001 report, "The Welfare of Animals Kept for Fur Production""."

The European Campaign for Animal Rights urges MEPs to take into account the barbaric killing methods used on fur farms, where the cheapest methods available are used, including gas or electrocution.

The Campaign welcomes the fact that a small number of enlightened EU Member States, including the UK, have taken the initiative to ban fur farming in their own territories through national legislation.  However this simply creates at the situation whereby fur farms faced with an individual country ban, move their production to another EU country.  A recent example of this concerns a company from the Netherlands which set up a fur farm in Sercaia village in Romania when the Netherlands began to implement a national ban.  The European Campaign for Animal Rights believes that the only solution is harmonisation of European legislation and an EU-wide ban to end this cruel practice.

Ms Hamerman added: "With so many natural and synthetic alternatives available, there is simply no justification for farming mink.  The way we treat animals is a mark of our values and standards as a society.  The EU has a duty to lead the way and ban this cruelty to animals across Europe."

Those wishing to support the Campaign should visit http://europeananimalrights.org/

We also ask supporters to sign our petition: https://www.change.org/p/janusz-wojciechowski-european-campaign-for-animal-rights-end-mink-fur-farming-in-europe?recruiter=384765948&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

Contact: Jennifer Hamerman, European Campaign for Animal Rights, Email: jhamerman@europeananimalrights.org