Norway to shut down all mink and fox fur factories by 2025
Norway introduced a total ban on fur farming Sunday, a statement by the Norwegian animal rights organization NOAH said. Norway has nearly 300 fur farms, which produce fur from 700,000 minks and 110,000 foxes every year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) added.
The ban, which will go into full effect once the farms are shut down in 2025, is the result of strong anti-fur campaigns across the country.
Reuters cites another underlying factor:
Fox farming peaked in Norway in 1939, just before World War Two, when the Nordic nation was the biggest world producer with almost 20,000 farms, according to a government report.
In 2013, by contrast, Norway produced only about three percent of 7.3 million fox furs worldwide in a market dominated by China, with 69 percent, and Finland, it said.
That same year, Norway produced one percent of world mink output of 72.6 million, a market also dominated by China.
“It’s not a very lucrative business in Norway,” said Sveinung Fjose, of Menon Business Economics and an expert on fur farms. “It wouldn’t harm the Norwegian economy severely” to close it down.
