Opinion: Criticisms of fur farming are misleading and unfair

Pam Paquin stitches a fur purse on her manual sewing machine at her home in Central Massachusetts, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. (AP / Charles Krupa)

The call for a ban on fur farming -- as proposed in Private Members Bill C-247, and supported by the Montreal SPCA -- is misleading, unfair and insulting to Canadian farm families.

The great majority of fur-bearing animals raised on Canadian farms are mink and the claim that these animals are treated cruelly is simply not true.

Like for other farm animals in Canada, standards for the care of farm-raised mink are set out in codes of practice developed by veterinarians, animal scientists and animal welfare authorities under the auspices of the National Farm Animal Care Council.

With the new Certifur program, third-party audits by NSF International, one of the world’s most respected agricultural verification organizations, ensure that these codes are properly implemented on the farms.

Furthermore, it is in the farmers’ own interest to ensure that mink receive excellent nutrition, housing and care because this is the only way to produce the high-quality fur for which Canada is known.

Only well-treated, healthy animals have thick, shiny fur, as pet owners know.

It is a testimony to the excellent care that farmers provide that Canadian mink consistently garner the top five per cent of prices at international fur auctions.

The claim that the methods used to euthanize farmed mink are “barbaric” is also false.

Farmed mink in Canada are euthanized with bottled Carbon Monoxide gas, which is very quick and humane.

So quick and painless that each year people, unfortunately, die when accidentally exposed to CO.

Furthermore, because farmed mink are not raised for food, they can be euthanized in their barns, avoiding the stress of being loaded onto trucks and transported to distant abattoirs.

And while farmed mink are not raised for food, as carnivores they play an important role by consuming the parts of pigs, chickens and fish that humans do not eat, food industry “wastes” that might otherwise end up in landfills.

Mink manure, soiled straw bedding and carcasses are composted, providing high-quality manure to replenish cropland, completing the agricultural nutrient cycle.

Not least important, fur farming provides employment and income in rural Canadian communities -- and as much as $100 million in exports in recent years.

The claim that mink fur is an “unnecessary luxury” is misleading.

While natural fur is warm and beautiful, it also has the ecological benefit of being extremely long-wearing, re-stylable, and -- after decades of use -- completely biodegradable.

By contrast, 65 per cent of our clothing is now made with non-renewable and non-biodegradable synthetics derived from petroleum -- “fast fashion” that is often discarded after only a few seasons.

We now know that these synthetics shed millions of particles of micro-plastics into our air and waterways, plastics are now being found in marine life and even in breastmilk.

Cruelty-free indeed.

It is especially shameful that activists are fearmongering about the discovery that mink can contract COVID-19.

We now know that ferrets, hamsters, cats, deer, mice and other species are also susceptible to the Sars-CoV-2 virus.

But, thanks to strict biosecurity protocols, COVID-19 has infected only three (five per cent) of Canada’s 60 mink farms.

When swine flu or avian flu appears on farms, no one proposes banning pork or chicken production; the government works with farmers to contain and clear the infection.

Canadian farmers need our support, not fearmongering, as they work to protect their animals, their families and their livelihoods.

Fur farming is being unfairly attacked by activists as the thin edge of the wedge in their campaign to end any use of animals by humans for food, clothing or any other purpose.

No one is obliged to wear fur, just as each of us can decide for ourselves if we wish to wear wool or leather or to eat meat and dairy.

But calls for political bans, fueled by false and misleading claims, are not justified.

They are insulting and hurtful to hardworking farmers and their families.

The Canadian fur trade is a small-scale, artisanal industry that lacks the resources or political clout to defend itself against multinational activist groups that have perfected the art of using sensationalism to attract media attention and drive their fundraising campaigns.

No one is obliged to wear fur.

But at a time when ecologists are calling on us to consume less, which includes buying better quality clothing that lasts longer, we should be supporting our mink farmers and promoting responsibly produced, natural fur -- not seeking to ban it.

Alan Herscovici was raised in a Montreal fur crafting family and served as executive vice-president of the Fur Council of Canada for 20 years.

He is the author of Second Nature: The Animal-Rights Controversy and the founding editor of Furisgreen.com and TruthAboutFur.com.