New investigation into fur farms sends shock waves through Finland
- 10 % of Finnish fur farms investigated

Finnish animal rights organization Oikeutta Eläimille has published a new thorough investigation into the fur industry in Finland.

The investigation team visited 83 fur farms between spring and winter 2010. What they found is shocking: foxes with missing legs, puppies eating their dead siblings, terrible gashes, injuries, stereotypical behavior, cannibalism, lame animals, severe eye infections, gum infections, rotting corpses riddled with worms left in cages with living animals, the list goes on. This investigation is the most complete insight into the Finnish fur industry ever done.

Some of these farms are owned by people in very high positions within the industry. One farm belongs to the chairman of the Finnish Fur Sales, Jorma Kauppila. In his farm mink had open wounds, head wounds, missing ears, stereotypical behaviour and foxes had very bad eye infections. You can watch a video from his farm here.

Another farm belongs to the chairman of the Finnish Fur Breeder's association. His small fox farm was filmed twice. Foxes with eye infections, bent legs and ear problems were found. Watch a video from Ulf Enroth's farm here.

Two of the farms were owned by the vice chairman of the Finnish Fur Breeder's association. These farms were in shocking condition: animals with very bad gum and eye infections were found, as well as many with streotypical behaviour. One fox was dragging the back legs behind, another fox had a huge open wound (ear bitten off) and was limping a front leg. You can watch video's from two farms owned by Esa Rantakangas here and here .

Over 30 % of the investigated farms are certified. Certification is administered by farmers themselves to improve their public relations image. They claim this guarantees animal welfare.

In reality, the certified farms has the exact same problems as the uncertified farms. Sometimes even worse. One certified farm was visited by the investigation team three times in three months, where they documented that some of the animals, ill and with severe gum infection, were left untreated for the entire time.

Over 90 % of all farms investigated had animals with eye infections. Many of the animals could not even open their eyes. More than half of the farms had animals with ear injuries. Over 30 % of the farms had animals with open wounds.

Wounds and other injuries are very shocking. But the worst suffering is not so easy to see. Wild animals are kept in small cages for the whole of their short lives, without any possibility to act according to their natural behavior. This causes stress and mental suffering for the animals. These problems cannot be fixed with official inspections or control. Fox farming has already been banned for example in Sweden, because the law demanded that foxes should be able to dig and live in social groups, says Anne Nieminen from Oikeutta Eläimille.

The unethical treatment of animals on Finnish fur farms was brought to public attention as early as a year ago, when Oikeutta Eläimille published a similar investigation, showing the conditions on 32 farms. The situation has not improved over the year, despite the claims of the industry - quite the opposite. The investigations reveal that suffering, injuries and stereotypical behavior are an inseparable part of the fur industry, and a direct consequence of the conditions of the cage.

This industry, which crossly violates animal welfare, has already been condemned by the public. Now we need concrete action from politicians and from the people, so that we can get an end to this cruel practice, says Anne Nieminen.

Oikeutta Eläimille demands a full ban on fur farming.

Investigation includes fur farms from 35 municipalities from all around Finland. Most of the documented farms are from the western part of Finland where most of the farms are located.
Footage from all farms can be seen at www.tarhauskielto.fi

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Contact:
Oikeutta Eläimille
00 358 46 621 9765
00 358 40 874 5217
www.oikeuttaelaimille.net
info [at] oikeuttaelaimille.net
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High quality pictures can be downloaded from here

Download video with English texts

Watch the video

Farm of the chairman of the Finnish fur sales

Animal abuse at fur farms supported by the Finnish Prime Minister:

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How to use the site:
Click on "Kuvat ja videot" and you get to a map page, where you can zoom in and click on any pin you want, and you are able to visit the farm with us. You can also choose a farm from the list on the left. You will see video and pictures of that farm.

Click on "Etusivu" to get back to the front page.