Poland May Ban Fur Farming Next Year

Poland May Ban Fur Farming Next Year

Thomas Nelson
October 28, 2020
Animals, News, Politics
0 Comments

Poland’s fur farms may be in their final year of operation after an outcry caused by undercover footage of Poland’s largest fur farm. In the footage, minks being farmed for fur were shown engaging in “cannibalism, aggression, self-aggression, open wounds and paralysis of minks’ limbs.” Minks account for about 94% of the animals farmed for their fur in Poland.

The bill, which has been named Five For Animals was tabled early on in September by the country’s ruling right wing coalition.

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Fur farming ban

“Fur animals are typically killed in November and December, so we hope this year’s cull might be the last, depending on when the law will take effect,” said Anna Iżyńska of Otwarte Klatki, or Open Cages. “We are happy because that’s what we have been fighting for the past nine years.”

Fur farmers across the country are angered and dismayed by the decision. The owner of the farm in the video blames the disturbing behavior of the minks on the activists filming them, alleging that they instigated the behaviors.

“The Ukrainian activist provoked incidents that never took place on the farm before,” said Szczepan Wójcik, brother of Wojciech Wójcik, who owns the farm in the video, in a tweet.

“We are never going to agree to the fact that the PiS government is trying to take what we’ve worked all our lives away from us,” Wójcik told The Guardian in an interview. “We have invested money, we have loans, and it’s all legal business. What the government is doing is basically expropriating us and for that, I am sure they will lose the next election.”

“We demand that the government compensates us for the ban, just like the governments in the Czech Republic, Norway, or the UK did. So that we can pay back loans and switch to other business.”

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If the bill were to pass next year, it would deal the final blow to an industry which has already been in decline in Poland. Demand from the United Kingdom in particular has been in decline since 2017. The UK may fully ban fur sales eventually.

In terms of likelihood of passage, it seems nearly a sure thing. The opposition has signaled it will support the Five For Animals bill. Poland will be in good company, as Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and the UK have all banned fur farming.