Animal Rights

Finland's Fur Farm Cruelty Exposed

Credit: Oikeutta elÃ¤imille

An undercover investigation, international in scope, revealed shocking conditions in some of Finland's fur farms, where millions of animals are bred to be slaughtered for their furs.

Farming wild animals for their fur is big business in Finland impacting millions of animals each year, including raccoons, mink, silver fox and blue foxes.



Most countries in the EU have banned fur farming, and fox farming is banned in all the Nordic countries. Denmark does still allow mink farming. But Finland and Poland still actively raise and kill animals for their fur.



When it comes to killing foxes for their fur, Finland is the biggest culprit in Europe, rearing and electrocuting around 2.5 million foxes every year for the global fur trade; only China farms more foxes globally, reports News Now Finland.



"Most people in Finland are against it. A recent survey published this month said that 80% of the population is against keeping animals in tiny cages."

Finland Fur Farms Image by: Oikeutta elÃ¤imille (CC BY)

The undercover footage taken in 2019 by The Humane Society International/UK, Finnish animal rights organisation Oikeutta Elaimille and Pete Wicks, star of British TV show The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) found "deplorable conditions and distressing animal suffering" at two farms on Finland's Ostrobothnia coast, where about 95% of Finnish fur farms are located. The crews found "tiny fox cubs struggling to walk across wire mesh cage floors, dead mink and foxes, and animals suffering from untreated wounds including a live mink whose head was partially cannibalised by cage mates".



Wicks said "Despite having seen lots of fur farm footage, nothing could have prepared me for the suffering I saw when I investigated fur farms in Finland with HSI/UK. It was sickening, I really don't believe that anyone who has seen the state of these poor animals - terrified and trapped in tiny cages - would ever wear fur again. It is great that the UK banned fur farming, but it doesn't make sense that we're still selling fur from farms like the ones I visited in Finland."



He recorded an emotionally-charged video for his fans showing footage from the farm.



The fur farms are "Far worse than I ever imagined," Wicks said, and called the fur trade "Cruel and disgusting." Pete asked his followers not to buy fur, and shared HSI's petition calling on the British government to ban fur sales in the UK.



Even though the UK banned fur farming in 2000, they still have imported over #800 million worth of furs from overseas, including Finland. "HM Revenue and Customs figures also show sizeable imports from a range of other countries such as Italy, France, Poland, China and Russia".