Category: Fur and Fur Farming

Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

EU: Working Group for the ECI Fur Free Europe Successfully Launched at the European Parliament – 25 January 2023.

Working group for the ECI Fur Free Europe successfully launched at the European Parliament

25 January 2023

Today, a kick-off meeting was held at the European Parliament to launch a working group dedicated to the European Citizens’ Initiative Fur Free Europe. With over 1.3 million signatures collected in 8 months, the ECI Fur Free Europe clearly reflects the wishes of a majority of European citizens for a Europe without exploitation of animals for fashion.

The working group, announced last year during a meeting of the Intergroup on animal welfare and conservation, will be coordinated by Eurogroup for Animals in close collaboration with the Fur Free Alliance. 

The working group hosts representatives from the main political groups, and will work to support the Fur Free Europe initiative by coordinating amongst those groups and collaborating with civil society organisations involved in the ECI. The goal is to ensure the Parliamentary process which follows every ECI, and to adopt a resolution for a ban on fur farming and the sale of farmed fur products in Europe.

In addition, the working group, in conjunction with members of the Intergroup for the Welfare and Conservation of Animals, will aim to foster discussion and raise awareness in the European Parliament about the serious cross-cutting issues related to fur farming and the fur trade. The group will also participate in public campaign activities to apply further pressure and draw attention to the issue.

This is not the first time that the European Parliament has addressed problems connected with fur production. In May 2020, it adopted the Report on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, which acknowledged that fur production significantly compromises animal welfare and increases the susceptibility to infectious diseases, including zoonoses, as it has occurred with COVID-19 specially in mink:

Above – Brilliant Anja !!

[…] fur production, which involves the confinement of thousands of undomesticated animals of a similar genotype in close proximity to one another under chronically stressful conditions, significantly compromises animal welfare and increases their susceptibility to infectious diseases including zoonoses […]. The coming years will be crucial to end the enormous suffering of animals in the EU. In light of the Commissions’ strong commitment to revise the EU Animal Welfare legislation, this working group represents a crucial and timely initiative. We will work together to secure strong support from the European Parliament on the European Citizens’ Initiative Fur Free Europe. The only possible outcome, as demanded by European citizens, is a ban on fur farming and a ban on the sale of farmed fur products on the European market.

Anja Hazekamp, chairwoman of the Fur Free Europe working group

Fur free Europe – browse the publication:

Fur Free Europe | Eurogroup for Animals

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

EU: Great News – Fur Free Europe Reaches 1,000,000 Signatures, But More Needed to Ensure Validation Checks.

Fur Free Europe reaches 1,000,000 signatures

December 2022

The European Citizens’ Initiative Fur Free Europe has reached 1,000,000 signatures of support in little over 6 months. The initiative, which aims to ban fur farming and the sale of farmed fur products in the European Union, is well on its way to becoming a record breaking ECI for animals. But what happens now, and why will the campaign continue to gather signatures?

On 6 December, Fur Free Europe topped 1,000,000 signatures from citizens across the European Union. The campaign also confirmed successfully reaching the signature threshold in 14 Member States; Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Latvia, France, Belgium, Greece and Austria.

What happens now?

Every European Citizens’ Initiative requires one million validated signatures in order to succeed. 

Once the Fur Free Europe initiative closes, it will undergo a stringent verification procedure: governments from each Member State will check that signatures were gathered from real persons, that each person has added their support only once, and that their personal details such as name and ID number are registered and correct.

Due to this important verification procedure, it is possible that a large number of signatures could be invalidated and discounted, leaving the final figure below the required one million. 

For this reason, we will continue to collect signatures from citizens across Europe who share our belief that fur farming and the placement of fur products on the market are cruel, unnecessary and unethical. 

How many more signatures do we need?

Fur Free Europe will be pushing on at full force to gain as many signatures as possible, amplifying our call for a Europe without fur farming and ensuring there is no possibility our ECI can be invalidated. 

The most successful European Citizens’ Initiative for animals?

Fur Free Europe has collected one million names faster than any other European Citizens’ Initiative. This fantastic success is sure to increase the urgency for the European Commission to take action and finally bring the European fur industry to a close. 

Would you like to join over one million citizens to make this happen? 

Add your name to Fur Free Europe now, and follow the progress of our incredible movement.

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Finland: More Fur Farm Abuse Exposed.

Above – The animal rights group Oikeutta Elaimille (Justice for Animals) revealed footage of animals left to sit in their own waste whilst suffering from infections and other physical ailments, such as this white fox with an infected ear

Forced to eat their dead siblings, left to suffer painful infections and bred to become hugely obese… then killed to make coats: Finnish fur farm horrors revealed in undercover video

Watch the video and read more by clicking on:

Footage shared of appalling animal cruelty within Finland’s fox farms | Daily Mail Online

Regards Mark

Below – Animals are bred to the point of obesity which causes many health side-effects such as painful eye infections and damaged skin

above – A fox cub eats a dismembered skull in a cage with many of the animals lying next to or even eating their dead siblings

Environmental, Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Spain: Animal Rights Activists Protest Naked in Madrid Demanding Closure of all Fur Factories.

Animal rights activist protest naked in Madrid

They demanded the Spanish government close all fur factories

More than 50 naked animal rights activists covered in red paint protested in Madrid shouting slogans. The members of the international animal rights organisation “AnimaNaturalis”, protested in the centre of the Spanish capital, demanding the closure of fur farms.

Continue reading at:

Animal rights activist protest naked in Madrid (photos) | protothemanews.com

Well done them – abuses not required in 2023.

Regards Mark

Enjoy:

Environmental, Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

I’d rather go naked than wear animals, says Alicia Silverstone.

Alicia Silverstone is passionate about animal rights credit:Bang Showbiz

I’d rather go naked than wear animals, says Alicia Silverstone

The 46-year-old actress – who went vegan in 1999 – has underlined her support for animals rights by posing naked in a new campaign for PETA, the world’s largest animal rights organisation.

I’d rather go naked than wear animals, says Alicia Silverstone (yahoo.com)

Regards Mark

Environmental, Fur and Fur Farming, General News, Hunting

UK; Time To Stop Murdering Bears For Guards Vanity.

It takes the death of one innocent black bear for every guard hat produced.

We (like most) have called for this to stop for years; maybe finally something will be done now to stop this unnecessary murder and replace them in future with faux fur hats. Just as effective – and cruelty free !

Fur used for King’s Guards’ hats outside Buckingham Palace spark animal rights row (msn.com)

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/animal-rights-group-peta-is-suing-uk-military-a-request-to-king-charles-as-well/ar-AA156R2R

Regards Mark

Here is why:

https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/animal-rights-group-to-take-legal-action-against-uk-army-heres-why/ar-AA1572cg?fullscreen=true&cvid=73f969ef5d7d4d7c81b56c8d2596bd13#image=1

Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Europe – Fur Free Europe; Going Well But The 1 Million Signature Target Needs Support By March 2023.

I have been talking with the guys at (England Nottingham) based ‘Respect for Animals’ today – fighting the fur industry.

Respect for Animals | Campaign against animal fur – Fur for Animals

We are over half way there in calling for a fur free Europe, and at this present time around 600,000 Europeans have already signed the current Fur Free Europe ECI.

This means that the campaign is well over half of the way to meeting the target of 1,000,000 validated signatures backing the European Citizens Initiative (ECI) which would, if auccessful, oblige the European Commission to both respond and take action.

The Fur Free Europe ECI calls on the EU to ban both fur farming and the placing on the market of farmed fur products.

The ECI Fur Free Europe runs from 18/05/2022, and lasts for one year. So it is essential that we push this campaign and get as many signatures as possible over the coming months,

In order to influence the Commissions draft proposals for changes to the animal welfare legislation across the EU, 1 million signatures need to be collected by around March 2023, which makes the next few months crucial in this campaign.

British and other worldwide citizens are not elegible to sign this petition – which requires validation and is limited to EU citizens only.

But, as many EU citizens still live in the UK, they still have the right to sign the ECI for a fur free Europe.

If you are an EU citizen, or you know of any, then please sign, or urge them to sign by going to:

Fur Free Europe | Eurogroup for Animals

Every signature is so important, and counts in getting past 1 million.

Compiled in conjunction with ‘Respect for Animals’, Nottingham, England.

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

England: Right and Wrong Ways To Make Your Voice Heard. Show Some Respect and Dignity.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11360879/Animal-rights-protester-stood-naked-Harrods-speaks-against-modern-eco-zealots.html

RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT.

‘Never have I ever regretted flying the flag for vegans as much as I do now after seeing this pathetic and unacceptable attempt at protesting. Back in my day at least we had the common decency to show some respect and dignity.’ 

She protested the fur trade by standing naked outside Harrods almost every day for a year in 2015, paid upwards of £10,000 to advertise for her cause and lost her hair as a result of her vegan diet

She protested the fur trade by standing naked outside Harrods almost every day for a year in 2015.

The mother and childcare worker has done everything in her power to promote veganism. But even she says the current eco zealots who are wreaking havoc on the streets of London need to be stopped. Or at the very least, redirected

She fears she won't see the end of the fur trade in her lifetime, but remains hopeful for change

Ms Porter’s activism is often shocking and she wants it to lead to discussion – but she says she did not go out of her way to cause major disruption like current protesters

 ‘It has almost cost me my sanity’: Animal rights protester who stood naked outside Harrods reveals the true toll of her activism… but her only regret is sharing her cause with ‘pathetic’ modern eco-zealots

  • Heidi Porter has no regrets about her activism, despite admitting it has ‘cost me my sanity many times’
  • But even she says the current eco zealots wreaking havoc on the streets of London are in the wrong
  • She said the new crop of activists turned on her because her own views didn’t align exactly with theirs 
  • Ms Porter’s comments come amid a month of chaos in the United Kingdom due to repeated protests 

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

Eco activists targeted the world famous Girl with a Pearl Earring painting by Johannes Vermeer in the Netherlands in the latest brazen gallery attack

Below – This is the moment a passerby intervened with a paint-wielding protester vandalised the MI5 building on Millbank, London, on Monday morning.

Police intervened after Tez Burns, 34, sprayed orange paint on the exterior of the MI5 building on Marsham Street.

There is right and wrong Direct Action.

Having been involved myself with direct action, you need to get public support on your side by facts and education, not by destruction.

Regards Mark

Below – Myself and Barb protest at Dover (England) against the live export of baby calves destined for the veal crates of Europe.

Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

Against all instincts: how living on fur farms affects the daily lives of wild animals.

20 October 2022

World Animal Day was celebrated on 4 October, a day to reflect on the incredible animal kingdom and all of the unique species we share our planet with. Mink, foxes and chinchillas, species typically found on fur farms in Europe, are inherently wild animals that have fascinating lives in their natural habitats.

This month, we are delving deeper into how these species live in the wild, and how their natural instincts are stifled on fur farms.

A dog’s life for foxes

Red foxes mainly live in pairs or in family groups of up to ten adults and pups, digging dens with many tunnels. Their Arctic cousins roam for dozens of kilometres. But on fur farms, both species are condemned to solitary confinement in wire-mesh battery cages measuring 0.8-1.2m2.

Mink are restricted to even smaller cages, whereas in the wild they climb and jump between trees across a territory of up to 3km2 a day – that is when they’re not diving to depths of up to six metres and swimming underwater for over thirty.  

Even the humble chinchilla can jump up to four times the 50cm height of the cages where they are imprisoned on farms. Used to living in colonies of over 100 yet forming breeding pairs, they find themselves constrained to small groups.

The failure to satisfy the most essential needs for the animals’ physical and mental wellbeing leads to distressed behaviour, such as pacing and circling, fur-chewing and tail-biting. Self-inflicted injuries, infected wounds, missing limbs and even cannibalism are recurrent on fur farms, as are high levels of reproductive failure and infant mortality.

Being wild animals, they are naturally fearful of humans. When heavy gloves do not provide adequate protection, handlers resort to metal neck or body tongs, and even traps placed in the cage. 

No animal fares well on fur farms 

The WelFur programme claims to assess animal welfare on fur farms in Europe. But as its protocols were developed to apply to housing in cages, this means the results of their studies only tell us that all fur farms are basically the same, not that the animals live in adequate conditions.

Animal welfare can only be looked at properly through the prism of the Five Domains, which assesses the balance between positive and negative experiences and feelings – a paradigm shift from the previous Five Freedoms model focused on the elimination of negative experiences. Using this animal-centric approach, fur farming is clearly an utterly unacceptable cruelty. It needs to be stopped. 

If you agree that no animals should be punished for having fur, but that instead keeping animals on farms to be killed for their fur should be illegal, don’t hesitate before signing our Fur Free Europe European Citizens’ Initiative to ban fur farms and farmed fur products on the European market. 

“Fur Free Europe”, our latest report, goes into more detail about the ethological needs of species farmed for their fur, and how the conditions these wild animals are subjected to make it impossible for their behavioural needs to be met.

Regards Mark

Environmental, Farm Animals, Fur and Fur Farming, General News

EU: European Parliament: a First Conversation on “Fur Free Europe”.

6 October 2022

Press Release

A clear message of support from MEPs calling for a future without fur, while the ECI “Fur Free Europe” reaches more than 400,000 signatures in less than five months. The Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals held a dedicated meeting in Strasbourg on “The case for a Fur Free Europe”: scientific experts, MEPs, Member States and civil society make their case for a new Europe without fur.

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Strasbourg, 6 October 2022

In May 2022, Eurogroup for Animals, together with 80 NGOs, launched the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) Fur Free Europe which has already collected more than 400,000 signatures. The ECI calls on the EU to ban fur farming and the placement on the European market of farmed fur products, since fur is unethical, unsafe and unsustainable. 

The role of the European Parliament and its elected representatives is key to turning this massive public call into reality. That’s why the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals held a dedicated meeting in Strasbourg on “The case for a Fur Free Europe”. 

After an introduction from the President of the Intergroup Tilly Metz MEP (LU, Greens/EFA), Reineke Hameleers presented the campaign on behalf of Fur Free Europe, and introduced the new report on the reasons why we need to ban fur farming and the placement of farmed fur products on the European market from public health, legal, environmental and ethical perspectives.

More than 400,000 citizens have already made it clear that fur no longer has a place in Europe. Member States are ready to back their request. Today’s exchange with experts, MEPs and the horrific but important images from the documentary complement the request. Society as a whole is ready to transition away from cruelty, Europe is ready for this move and, in order to succeed, we need the EP to be strong in its demands toward the EC. I am positive we can count on the elected representatives. 2023 can be the year we make history for the animals and for the EU.

Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals

The presentation was followed by a partial screening of the documentary SLAY from the makers of the award-winning films Cowspiracy and What The Health. SLAY follows filmmaker Rebecca Cappelli’s journey around the world to uncover the dark side of the fashion industry: a harrowing story of greenwashing, mislabeling, and animal cruelty. SLAY provides an in-depth and eye-opening look into the realities of today’s fashion industry while pointing the way towards viable and sustainable alternatives. 

The suffering of animals in the fashion industry is greenwashed into oblivion while those skin industries are destroying the planet and harming people. SLAY aims to challenge the notion that animal skins are a fabric, and open people’s eyes to the dark realities behind some of the most sought after skins in fashion.

Rebecca Cappelli, Director and Producer, SLAY

Bo Algers, Professor emeritus at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, gave a presentation on the “Behavioural needs of Mink and Foxes in the fur industry”.

Johannes Rauch, Austrian Federal Minister of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection intervened with a video message: “In my role as Minister of Health, I strongly push towards the realisation of the „One Health“ approach. That means we have to look at human health, animal health and environmental health as interlinked issues that strongly impact one another. I am convinced that we will have to fundamentally change this system of animal exploitation to avoid future pandemics. This is why I wholeheartedly support the European Citizens’ Initiative for a Fur Free Europe and I want to ask you to support it as well. The EU must use its power and also close the EU market to farmed fur products from outside the EU. Just like we have done with products from certain trapping methods, seal products or cat and dog fur. In order to make progress and live up to our moral standards and the responsible treatment of animals as sentient beings, I strongly urge all of you to support this common cause, support the Citizens‘ initiative and make this step possible towards the goal of a fur free Europe”.

The message echoed the information note tabled by Austria and the Netherlands during a meeting of the Council of the European Union (Agriculture and Fisheries), supported by Belgium, Germany Luxembourg and Slovakia, calling on the European Commission to  investigate the possibility for a ban on fur farming. The call to end fur farming in the EU on the grounds of animal welfare, public health and ethical considerations, was backed by a total of twelve Member States during the deliberations on this paper.

Notes

The ECI Fur Free Europe  

The report Fur Free Europe 

SLAY digital booklet

Watch the SLAY documentary

The 2021 request to end fur farming in the EU from Twelve Member States 

 Regards Mark