FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Quebec authorizes the farming of two species for fur production: minks and foxes.¹

Unlike animals destined for consumption, animals raised for their fur are essentially wild animals, and they are very poorly suited to captivity. Hardly domesticated, they have an innate fear of humans; but on a fur farm, however, they cannot escape human contact. The selection of animals for fur farms is mainly based on the quality of their fur and not on how docile or how adapted to captivity they are.²

Self-mutilation, infanticide, cannibalism and stereotypies (repetitive behaviours for no apparent purpose) are frequently observed in animals raised for their fur. These reflect their psychological distress.^3,4,5,6,7,8 Observers report that some animals spend over a quarter of their waking hours manifesting abnormal behaviours, such as turning around in circles or pacing back and forth in their cage.

It is impossible to raise and kill wild animals for their fur in a way that is both respectful of their welfare and cost effective. Some countries, such as Germany, implemented stricter animal welfare regulations, which required farmed foxes to have access to substrate for digging and farmed minks to have water for swimming. This ultimately led to the end of the industry because of its lack of economic viability.

Foxes and minks—the two species farmed in Quebec—are curious and intelligent animals. They are active, and they move through large territories in the wild. They have complex behavioural needs that are unique to their species.

In the wild, foxes roam over territories of several square kilometres and dig complex burrows in which they take shelter and give birth to their young. On farms, foxes spend their entire lives caged in raised pens, with wire mesh floors of roughly one square metre in size.

Minks are semi-aquatic animals who spend much of their time diving and swimming to find food. On farms, they are confined to cages with floor space as small as two standard sheets of paper, without access to water in which to swim.⁹ Research has shown that minks suffer as much stress from being unable to swim as they would if deprived of food.¹⁰ In the wild, minks are solitary animals; in fur-farm sheds, hundreds or even thousands are crammed into cages piled one on top of the other.

These codes do not have force of law, and farmers in Quebec (and in most other Canadian provinces) are not obliged to follow them. Also, while they present a set of minimal voluntary directives with regard to animals’ housing, care and handling, their requirements do not guarantee an acceptable level of welfare for the animals.

Among other things, they allow juvenile and adult minks to be picked up by the base of their tails to be transported short distances.¹¹ In the wild, foxes and minks would roam several kilometres every day; keeping them in small, wire cages for their whole lives and preventing them from expressing their natural behaviours therefore causes them frustration and stress.

For adult foxes, the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farmed Fox requires slaughter via electrocution, in which one electrode is placed in the animal’s mouth and another in the rectum.

The Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farmed Mink authorizes CO₂ asphyxiation for minks— a slaughter method that is highly aversive to this species.¹² This same Code allows the slaughter by firearm of any fox aged less than six months requiring “euthanasia”.¹³

The Montreal SPCA submitted comments to the NFACC regarding proposed modifications to the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farmed Mink at the beginning of 2021. The SPCA’s participation (in collaboration with other animal protection groups) sought to improve minks’ level of welfare, but, sadly, to no avail.

Intensive mink farming facilitates the spread of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Minks can contract the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 from humans¹⁴ and transmit it to other minks.¹⁵ The conditions in which farmed minks are kept, with large numbers of animals crowded together, foster this transmission.

In addition to contaminating one another, minks can also become intermediary hosts to COVID-19 and transmit mutated forms of the virus to the humans working with them.¹⁶ Several infection cases in mink farms were reported throughout the world, including in Canada.¹⁷

New coronavirus variants were also detected on these farms, posing a threat to public health and vaccine efficiency.¹⁸

The Nation Farm Animal Care Council held a consultation from December 2020 to February 2021 on recommended amendments to the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farmed Mink. This consultation was held after cases were discovered in Europe where minks had contracted COVID-19 from humans¹⁹ and transmitted it among themselves,²⁰ and while the virus was appearing on mink farms in British Columbia.

However, the proposed amendments did not mention COVID-19 or new precautionary measures to reduce the spread of the virus, despite a comment on the subject submitted by the Montreal SPCA during the consultation, and despite the immediate threat to public health of such transmission in Canada.

Phosphorus present in mink manure can contaminate bodies of water near farms.

Furthermore, neither mink farming nor fur processing are energy efficient, as they require a large number of resources, such as water, land, food and energy. They contribute to climate change, ozone layer depletion and acidification of terrestrial ecosystems.²¹

Disease and virus transmission from farms to surrounding wildlife are another major threat. This can occur when wildlife from surrounding areas comes into contact either with an infected mink or fox who is in captivity or has escaped, or with their excrement or carcass.

According to a European study,²² the environmental impact of a natural mink coat is 3 to 10 times higher than that of a fake fur coat. A similar study²³ compared the environmental impact of farmed mink fur to that of other textiles, such as cotton and polyester. Compared to the textiles, fur had a greater impact for 17 out of 18 of the mentioned environmental aspects, including climate change, eutrophication and toxic emissions.

The fur-farming industry is on its last legs in the province. There are only three registered farms in Quebec—one for foxes and two for minks²⁴—whereas in 1982, there were 226 registered farms in the province.

While the industry is on its last legs in Quebec, a legal ban of the practice would still be very important because it would officially put an end to the suffering of the last few hundred or thousand minks and foxes being raised in Quebec. Banning animal-fur farming would also prevent the industry from making a come-back in the future.

Finally, banning animal-fur farming would allow Quebec to position itself as an animal welfare leader in Canada.

Among the major brands that no longer use fur are Canada Goose, Versace, Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Vivienne Westwood, Kate Spade, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, etc.

Given that there are only two mink-fur farms and one fox-fur farm left in Quebec, the economic impact of a ban would be minimal. According to a CBC investigation, federal and provincial programs for financial aid (such as MAPAQ’s financial support programs²⁵) continue to assist fur farms despite the fact that the industry’s problems are caused by market decline.

This begs the question of whether governmental subsidies and loans are artificially supporting an industry that not only goes against the values of many across Canada and Quebec, but that is also not economically viable.

The value of fur has also decreased. For instance, the average sale price for a mink pelt in Quebec fell by 64% from 2012 to 2018, to $30.89.²⁶

The more jurisdictions ban animal-fur farming, the more it would pressure the countries that continue to produce fur in problematic conditions to do the same.

Also, banning fur farming may help influence public opinion and reduce the demand for fur and its importation.

Finally, given that 100% of pelts from Quebec farms are exported, 98% of which to the U.S., banning animal fur farming in Quebec would not have repercussion on the province’s imports.

More and more countries are banning animal fur farming (their entry into force dates are indicated in parentheses below):

Ireland (2022), Italy (2022), France (2021), Estonia (2026), Slovakia (2025), Norway (2025), Belgium (2023), Luxembourg (2018), the Czech Republic (2019), the UK (2000), Austria (2005), the Netherlands (2024), Croatia (2018), Slovenia (2016), North Macedonia (2014), Serbia (2019), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2028, although the last remaining farm ceased activities in 2020).