Loose provincial laws regulating fur farming, standards of care, and enforcement make it possible for some fur farmers to bend the rules.

Canada is home to a robust fur-farming industry of mink, fox, marten, fisher, chinchilla and a handful of other fur-bearing species. Last year, Statistics Canada counted more than 230 registered mink farms and 50 registered fox farms across the country, which bred a combined total of more than three million animals.

Fur farms are regulated provincially and in 2013 the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) released new codes of practice for the care and handling of farmed mink and fox.

These codes outline minimum requirements for housing, security, feed, water, health, husbandry, euthanasia and transport, but so far, only Newfoundland and Labrador have legislated them.

The B.C. government, which has not adopted these codes into provincial law, uses them as guidelines.

“By not putting that in [the Fur Farm Regulation], they are allowed to go into your farm and inspect and use their discretion,” explained Bryce Engebretson of the B.C. Mink Producers Association (BCMPA).

“If the mink are doing well and you’ve shown that you’re caring for the mink, and the veterinarians come in and looks and the mink are doing well, they’ll say ‘you’re good.’”

Used as a "benchmark" only, the codes of practice have no legal implications. This means farmers can get away with bending the rules, even if only by several inches of cage space.

This makes the law "woefully inadequate" according to Lesley Fox, director of the Vancouver-based Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals.

"There's nothing that has teeth," she lamented. "It just comes down to the fact that there’s no recourse."

Fox pointed to the 2014 case of the mink farm in B.C.'s Fraser Valley, where BC SPCA animal welfare scientist Sara Dubois found animals living in "horrific" conditions, despite government claims that fur-farmed animals in B.C. are treated with "due care and respect."

Government trailing behind

In an email to National Observer, B.C. Ministry of Agriculture communications manager Robert Boelens said the province's current legislation is sufficient to govern fur farms, including the care of mink and fox.

He did not answer questions about why the ministry had not ratified the NFACC’s new mink and fox codes or whether it ever intends to, but he did highlight new amendments to the Fur Farm Regulation that require annual government inspection of fur farms as a condition of re-licensing.

"The B.C. government does not tolerate any mistreatment of animals," he said.

"Fur Farming is a licensed agricultural activity in B.C. and the B.C. government has legislation and regulations in place that require all animals in British Columbia to be treated with due care and respect."

A closer look at the Fur Farm Regulation, however, reveals no clear minimum standards of care for the animals, including recommended enclosure sizes, euthanasia methods, environmental stimulation or environmental management.

As seen below, it explicitly states that farmers require only "a plan" — language that animal advocates criticize as vague.

Screenshot of a section of the Fur Farm Regulation.

Without strict enforcement of the NFACC codes, said Dubois, she places little faith in the B.C. government's current legislation:

"There is no third party or auditing system of mink farms right now. The reality is that the Ministry of Agriculture is not allowing the BC SPCA into farms to go and look at the practices."

During Dubois' inspection last year, a Ministry of Agriculture representative told her that the mink farm's horrible conditions were "middle of the pack" in comparison with the province's other fur farms.

The B.C. SPCA subsequently asked for access to the rest of the province's 14 or so fur farms, but the provincial government did not issue a formal response. The organization can only inspect farms after a complaint has been made, and unless it is invited in by the fur farmer, it requires a court-ordered warrant.

Dubois also clarified via email that if the B.C. SPCA inspects a farm, unless animals are in critical distress and need to be removed immediately for vet care or euthanasia, the farmer has "an opportunity to fix the issues in the complaint within a specified time (can be 24 hours, a week, whatever officer requires)."

As long as they comply, cruelty charges are not usually laid, she said.

APFA director Lesley Fox further scoffed at B.C.'s Fur Farm Regulation inspection amendment, which she called a "giant conflict of interest."