COVID-19 Cases in Minks Prompt Call to Ban Fur Farms in Finland

COVID-19 Cases in Minks Prompt Call to Ban Fur Farms in Finland

As Deadly Viruses Are Linked to Captive Wildlife, PETA Stresses Need to Implement Ban Immediately

Helsinki – Following reports that minks have tested positive for COVID-19 on fur farms in Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, and the US, PETA sent a letter this morning urging Minister of Agriculture Jari Leppä to implement a ban on fur farms in Finland and close its remaining facilities. In doing so, the country would follow in the footsteps of the Netherlands, which announced last month that it would close down its fur farms by the end of this year. France and Poland also recently voted to ban mink farming.

The group points out that SARS and the novel coronavirus first infected humans who came into close contact with captive wildlife at live-animal markets – which represent a similar public health risk to that posed by fur farms, where stressed, immunosuppressed animals are confined to cramped wire cages, allowing diseases to spread easily. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that approximately 75% of recently emerging infectious diseases affecting humans originated in other animals.

“When it comes to the public health risk they pose, fur farms packed with sick, stressed, and injured animals are no different from wet markets,” says PETA Vice President of International Programmes Mimi Bekhechi. “In the face of a global crisis stemming from the wildlife trade, the time for decisive action is now, and we urge Finland to shut down its remaining fur farms.”

Investigations into mink farms have discovered animals living in extreme confinement, left with untreated bite wounds, missing legs that were bitten off during fights, and living next to the rotting corpses of their cagemates. Driven insane by captivity, minks have been found to engage in infanticide, cannibalism, and self-mutilation. They’re commonly gassed to death.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

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