Most of the fur farms are empty due to the bird flu

Until the Covid pandemic, Denmark was the largest nerz fur producer in the world and Finland the largest fox sheet producer. When it turned out that murmurs of covid were transferred, the Danish fur farms were closed and the entire infrastructures of the fur industry were dismantled. Recently, even the prestigious Copenhagen had to close for Center, in which 40 % of all raw pelza sales in the world were processed. Since the fur farm ban in Bulgaria, there has so far been only a relevant number of animals in fur farms in the EU in Finland, Poland, Greece and Spain. A current visit to the Finnish fur farms by the VGT now shows that the vast majority of the farms there are empty because of the bird flu. The VGT controlled 15 fur farms, including in constructions, where there is even a fur farm with farms that have kept up to 50,000 foxes in cages, as well as Evijärvi, Halsua and Lapua. All farms were empty, and many were even dismantled with the cage series. It looks like the end of the fur industry in Finland.

VGT-OBSPERSON GDR. Martin Balluch was there in Finland: “In 1998, the VGT achieved a ban on the fur farms with other clubs in Austria. It was the first worldwide. In 2003 I filmed fur farms in Finland, was threatened by farmers, arrested by the police and was charged by the public prosecutor’s office, but was released in the second instance. Hundreds of thousands of foxes were kept in cages, and today everything is empty.

Due to the very successful European citizens’ initiative against fur, the EFSA was commissioned as a scientific advisory board of the EU Commission to ask whether fur-farms are possible. The answer recently came: clearly no. (1) All fur farms have cage batteries and life in a tiny wire grid cage is always cruelty to animals. In addition, the EU declared the American mink, the Mink, an invasive way, which is why it is forbidden to farm Mink. The path to an EU-wide fur farm is therefore free, including an import ban of fur clothing, which is then possible.

Press photos (Copyright: VGT.at)

(1) EFSA AHAW Panel (EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare), Nielsen, S. S., J. Álvarez et al.: Welfare of American mink, red and Arctic foxes, raccoon dog and chinchilla kept for fur productionin: EFSA Journal Vol. 23(7), 2025