What Animals Are Killed for Fur?

Millions of animals are bred and killed each year solely for their fur. On fur farms, these wild animals spend their lives permanently confined to small wire cages. The stress of extreme confinement and barren conditions can lead to fear, frustration and abnormal repetitive behaviours such as pacing, circling and self-mutilation. Scientific evidence has shown that even so-called "higher welfare" fur farms cannot adequately meet the behavioural and welfare needs of these animals. After a short life spent in extreme deprivation, animals on fur farms are killed using methods designed to keep their pelts perfectly intact, which often prioritises industry profits over animal welfare. Standard slaughter methods include gassing with carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, painful electrical stunning, or cervical dislocation (breaking the neck) to create fashion products.

This gallery shows the standard conditions on fur farms around the world, highlighting why FOUR PAWS is calling for a Fur Free Australia and a global ban on fur farming. These images are non‑graphic but reveal the systemic cruelty built into the fur industry. See the gallery here. 

According to FOUR PAWS, approximately 95% of fur originates from fur farms with the remaining coming from wild trapping. Both systems are responsible for horrific animal cruelty and suffering.

Animal welfare concerns include:

• Confinement in small wire cages
• Stress-related behaviours
• Limited ability to express natural instincts
• Brutal killing methods

These concerns have led many countries, brands and consumers to move away from real fur.

Unlike our ancestors, we are no longer dependent on fur today. Warming garments made of alternative materials and deceptively realistic looking fake fur have long been available. Nevertheless, all over the world certain animal species are still admired - and tormented - for their particularly beautiful, dense fur. This beautiful fur becomes the fate of fur animals like minks, foxes, raccoon dogs and many other species.

Here, you will find an overview of the typical fur animals - and the sad conditions in which they have to live until their death.

When the term 'mink' is mentioned, many people do not even think of the small predator from the mustelids family, but of a fur coat. The mink is probably the most famous of all fur animals. While the European mink is strictly protected, American minks are bred as fur animals or are caught directly in the wild with brutal traps. On fur farms, American minks (Mustela vison) live in tiny wire mesh cages, which have a surface area of just a quarter of a square metre and are about 45 cm high. In addition, there is a sleeping box the size of a shoe box. Breeding animals are usually kept individually; the young animals intended for fur production usually stay together in pairs until they are killed. 

As food, farm minks are given a food mash which is smeared onto the grid, they cannot live out their biting instinct this way. The very mobile animals are extremely restricted in their urge to move. Minks also have webbed feet and roam up to six kilometres in the wild, mostly in and around water. Nevertheless, on fur farms they are deprived of bathing opportunities for swimming and diving. They cannot climb, hide or interact with or avoid other animals of the same species. Studies show that 70 percent of farm minks exhibit stereotypical behaviour such as highly repetitive movements, pacing and excessive grooming or licking.

Foxes are abused in their millions for the global fur trade.

These intelligent and sensitive animals endure extremely cruel conditions, much like the mink and raccoon dogs. Foxes are targeted across their many variations, including the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), the colour variation silver fox, which have been intensively hunted for centuries because of their impressive silvery-black fur and have been almost exterminated in the wild, and the arctic fox (Alopex lagopus as white or blue fox).

The conditions under which these animals are kept are catastrophic: the cages, made entirely of wire mesh, are about 0.8 square metres in size and 70 cm high for individual animals. The only equipment is usually a water container, only during the litter time are the foxes (female foxes) provided with a 'sleeping' box. The food mash is lubricated on the cage grid. In their natural habitat foxes can live in large roaming areas, earth burrows are used as resting places and for raising the puppies. The wire mesh of the farm cages, on the other hand, offers no structures whatsoever. The foxes can hardly move. Lack of retreat possibilities in the cages also contributes to the pronounced anxiety of the animals or biting among themselves. The foxes cannot satisfy their natural urge to dig. The grid floor injures their paws and due to the lack of movement, the foxes suffer from bone damage. Cannibalism is also a big problem, especially in breeding: 20 percent of all puppies fall victim to the foxes. In the wild, the rearing of puppies takes place in complex social systems.

Breeding for pelt size has also caused significant welfare issues, resulting in obesity, diminished mobility, and gastrointestinal problems. In Finland, the selective breeding of super-sized polar foxes has resulted in massively obese animals, with males weighing 20kg or more while in nature such foxes usually weigh between 3-4kg. Welfare problems related to obesity, such as foot deformities and abnormal locomotion, are observed frequently on blue fox farms. 

Perhaps an animal you've never heard of, and there is a reason for this: raccoon dog fur is called by many different names in the trade, often "Finnraccoon", "Russian Raccoon" or "Chinese Raccoon" or in German as raccoon, because of its visual similarity to this unrelated species. Other names are "sea fox" or "Tanuki". 

In fact, the raccoon dog is one of the most abused animals for fur in the whole fur industry, with approximately 15 million slaughtered for their fur every year. 

The predators belong to the group of canine animals and are kept particularly often in China and to a lesser extent in Finland due to their supposedly low food and husbandry requirements. In unstructured wire mesh cages with a maximum surface area of one square metre and a height of 75 cm, the raccoon dog cannot move enough, nor can they live out their exploratory behaviours. 

The wire mesh floors can cause injuries and deformation of the paws. Due to the inadequate keeping and the proximity to conspecifics, the animals are under permanent stress. In the wild, the nocturnal omnivores prefer dense undergrowth and proximity to watercourses, where they also dive for fish. Their roaming areas are on average almost ten square kilometres in size, with the animals avoiding foreign conspecifics. Depending on the weather, the raccoon dogs hibernate in the winter, for which they use burrows. Both parents are responsible for raising the young animals.

Every year, around 10 million cats and dogs are killed for their fur globally, up from two million in 2004. These poor animals endure a horrific and violent fate, often stolen from their homes or snatched off the street, torturously transported to a crude slaughterhouse, beaten and skinned. Their skins and fur are then mixed into fur garments and can end up anywhere in the world.