WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

EXCLUSIVE: Mink were also filmed huddled on wire floor and in filthy cages

Campaign group Open Cages branded it 'appalling' and said there is 'no excuse'

Mink were also filmed moving repetitively and with fur scratched off their backs

Minks 'driven mad by captivity' are attacking and eating each other at Lithuanian fur farms, footage recorded by animal rights activists has revealed.

Video, branded ‘appalling’ by animal rights activists, also shows the animals leaping up and down in distress inside tiny cages and one mink that has been ripped in half.

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Campaign group Open Cages took the footage last year to highlight the plight of mink farmed for their fur in the eastern European country, and across the industry.

The chilling footage was filmed by animal rights group Open Cages at Fur Farms in Lithuania. Above a mink is pictured tearing into the flesh of its cagemate

Mink were also filmed with open wounds and, in one case, cut in half inside their cage (above)

In one heartbreaking scene a mink is shown wrapped in a ball with all the fur scratched off its back and sides, while in another several are shown with matted fur.

Swarms of flies are also shown buzzing around the minks filthy cages which measure 11 x 35 inches.

Mink babies were also pictured huddling together on a wire floor for warmth and scrambling over each other’s bodies in cramped conditions. Bodies which appeared to be bloated from decomposition were also pictured at the farms.

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‘Appalling conditions like these are surprisingly common across the fur industry,’ Open Cages CEO Connor Jackson told MailOnline. ‘But there is no excuse for this level of animal abuse'.

‘We’re calling on Secretary of State for Environment Theresa Villiers to commit to tackling this issue as the Labour Party has done; use Brexit as an opportunity to ban the sale of fur in the UK. ‘(Do it) before yet more animals lose their lives to this outdated industry.’

The animals were also pictured with matted fur. Open Cages CEO Connor Jackson said that there is 'no excuse for this level of animal abuse'

This mink had had its legs and arms chewed off by its cage-mates. It is not clear whether this animal died before or after it was attacked

One mink was seen huddled in its cage with fur ripped off its back. It may have been rubbing it against the side of the cage due to stress

The video also includes footage of a fur farm worker from 2016, never before published in the UK, who described how mink behave in the farms.

‘They’re always just like this,’ she says after being shown clips of the mink leaping up and down inside their cages. ‘It seems to be due to stress.’

‘We see these wounds when the cubs are small,’ she says referring to cuts on the animals bodies.

‘We threw the food and it sometimes falls on their ears. They lick it off and it makes these wounds.’

The UK outlawed fur farms in 2000, but has continued to permit the import of real fur products.

Almost £75million of fur from animals including mink was imported in 2017 alone, government figures reveal.

A dead baby mink is pictured above lying on top of a cage. The UK outlawed fur farms in 2000 but has continued to permit the import of real fur products. Almost £75million worth was allowed into the country in 2017, according to government figures

A mink pictured lying in a cage after its head was removed. FurLithuania, which represents fur farms in the country, said it was shocked by the 'unacceptable scenes' and had 'never seen anything like it'

A mink body pictured on the cage floor. It appears to be bloated from decomposition

An investigation recently revealed that real fur products are still being sold in stores where they are banned, after real fur handbags, coats and hats were discovered for sale in T.K.Maxx.

More than two thirds of the British public support banning fur farming, the Humane Society International UK has revealed.

FurLithuania, which represents fur farms in the country, said it was shocked by the ‘unacceptable scenes’ in the video and had ‘never seen anything like it’.

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They added that neither the Lithuanian Breeders Association, that has worked in the sector for decades, or the Lithuanian State Veterinary Agency had ever viewed this before.

‘To keep untreated injured animals is a crime,’ they said, ‘so every person who notices it must report it to the police or State Veterinary Agency’.

The mink were pictured sandwiched into tiny cages. They could be at a renovated Soviet farm built before the country's collapse in 1991

A group of baby mink pictured huddling together for warmth at a fur farm in Lithuania

Flies were also filmed buzzing through the fur farms. The infestations can happen when muck is not collected and temperatures increase in the summer

Two mink stare mournfully out of their cages at animal rights activists visiting a fur farm

‘The Lithuanian Attorney General’s Office has already started investigations after our legal statement about the origins of the similar video footage distributed by the Empty Cages NGO in 2018.

‘If the death of a mink happens in the farm it is registered in the special journal and the bodies must be placed safely in a refrigerator and later transported to the utilisation company. No one throws dead animals around the farm.’

The farms where the graphic images were captured may have been filmed in a renovated ex-Soviet farm, which exist across Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Mink moving repetitively in cages is a ‘very rare phenomenon’, claimed FurLithuania, before alleging that sudden noise could frighten the animals and cause the movements.

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It added that minks pictured in the cages are not wild predators, having been domesticated and kept in cages for more than a century.