Hvis mink fik adgang til svømmevand,
ville de blive våde og sikkert fryse og dø.
Robert Morgan, Leder af Storbritaniens pelsavlerforening.
The Observer 1 Juni 1997
Morgan har tydeligvis glemt, at mink er semi-akvatiske
dyr, som tilbringer mere end 60% af deres aktive tid
i vandet og får størstedelen af deres føde
fra vandet (fisk og fugle).
Det var mit første
besøg på en pelsfarm…….Det
er svært at tro, at jeg skulle tage hele vejen
til Danmark for endelig at få lov at se en pelsfarm.
Jeg har bedt om at få lov til at se farme i USA
i de sidste 10 år, men har altid fået et
nej. Jeg synes stadig det er lidt underligt. Hvad er
jeg en outsider?
Lisa Marcinek, redactor for det amerikanske
industri blad Fur Age, som afslører hemmelighedsfuldheden
i Pelsindustrien Fur Age, Oktober 1998.
Designstuderende
fra pelsdesigncenteret citeret under et besøg
på en pelsfarm:
Åh se den mor prøver at gemme sine
unger fra os. Hun siger Nej dræb ikke mine bayer
og lav en frakke af dem, tag ikke min babyer, sagde
en i et skingert toneleje. Det var mere barnligt, end
det var fornærmende, og de tabte hurtigt interessen
og gik videre til en anden del af farmen.
Pelsdesigner bliver spurgt, hvordan
det er at bruge pels:
Det er ligesom at arbejde med døden sagde
hun dramatisk. Da jeg spurgte hvorfor hun så stadig
gjorde det trak hun på skuldrene og sagde: Det
er på en måde interessant.
Fur Age, Oktober 1998
Videnskabsmænd:
En person som reflekterer over emnet for første
gang vil undrer sig over, hvordan en sådan grusomhed
kan være blevet tilladt at fortsætte vor
tids civilization, og det er uden tvivl, at hvis lærde
mennesker så med deres egne øjne, hvad
der sker under deres billigelse, ville systemet være
blevet stoppet for længe siden..
Charles Darwin, Essay on Fur, 1878
The Council believes
that the systems employed in the farming of mink and
fox do not satisfy some of the most basic criteria …
for protecting the welfare of farmed animals. The current
cages used for fur farming do not appear to provide
appropriate comfort or shelter, and do not allow the
animals freedom to display most normal patterns of behaviour.
Farm Animal Welfare Council Press Notice 4 April
1989
Mink and fox are
by nature solitary animals. Keeping them packed together
in close confinement is an even greater torture than
that inflicted on herbivorous group-living animals.
That this should be done to provide human beings with
luxury seems indefensible.
Sir David Attenborough, C.B.E, F.R.S.
Stereotypies are
repetitive, invariant behaviour patterns with no obvious
goal or function. Their occurrence is often associated
with barren and restrictive conditions, or environments
which might be considered sub-optimal, and they develop
in animals faced with insoluble problems of frustration
or conflict. They are not seen in wild mink.
Dr AJ Nimon. 'Report on the welfare of Farmed
Mink and Foxes in relation to Housing and Management'.
Cambridge University Animal Welfare Information Centre,
1998
Denne type stereotypier,
hvis man så dem hos mennesker, ville indikere,
at de havde alvorlige psykologiske problemer. Man kunne
måske sige, at de var psykotiske.
Donald Broom, professor i dyrevelfærd
ved Cambridge University og formand for EUs videnskabelige
komite for veterinærvidenskab. BBC Wildlife, Juni
1997.
To me the most important aspect is the question of
whether keeping mink and foxes, given the serious nature
of welfare problems … is ethically justifiable.
Answering this question should take into account the necessity
and the reasonableness of the aim, the level of disturbance
of animal welfare, and the intrinsic value of the animals.
As far as I am concerned there is no need for keeping
these animals; it does not fulfil an essential human need
that could not be met in another way. Keeping these animals
means that their species-specific behaviour can only partly
be exercised because they are relatively unadapted to
humans. This expresses itself amongst other things in
welfare problems. To me the absence of a need is sufficient
reason to terminate these developments instead of waiting
for more research.
Dr H Verhoog. Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological
Sciences, State University of Leiden, The Netherlands
The result
of this degree of confinement is that the animals exhibit
all the typical reactions of wild creatures to a restricted
and deprived environment. They perform stereotyped patterns
of movement and various forms of self-mutilation. These
are clear signs to any objective observer that the captive
animals are under stress. Bearing in mind the fact that
the size of their natural living space in the wild is
approximately 12,000 times as great as their captive
living space, this is not entirely surprising.
Dr Desmond Morris. 'The Animal Contract', Virgin
Books, 1990
Pelsfarme har
mere til fælles med koncentrationslejre end med
almindelige landbrug. Det er den værste form for
industrilandbrug.
Disse fabrikker er forfærdelige steder med små
bure. Som konsekvens kan de [dyrene] lide af stressrelatede
tilstande, som sammen med dårlig hygieine kan
skade pelsene.
Prof Stephen Harris, professor i miljøvidenskab
ved Bristol University og formand for det bitiske Mammal
Society. Citeret i Express, 31 Juli 1998 og 11 August
1998
The conclusion
cannot be different than that foxes and mink are not
suitable for confinement in cages, and even further,
that they are not suitable to be kept at all. The suffering
of these animals goes beyond the aim for which they
are kept, more so because there are excellent alternatives
to the use of fur.
Prof FJ Grommers. University of Utrecht, The
Netherlands
Der er ingen grund,
som kan retfærdiggøre at dræbe dyr
og holde dem under begrænsende forhold i bure,
alene med luksus som formål, og intet system for
pelsfarmning har indtil videre været i stand til
at tilgodese dyrenes fysiologiske eller etologiske behov.
Veterinary Associations of the Federal Republic
of Germany
In fur farms today,
the animals have no possibility of a natural life.
Fur farms are rife with cannibalism and self-mutilation...
Wearing fur was something that humans used to do during
the stone ages. That people still do it is a little
strange.
Ingvar Johansson, former mink fur farmer in
Sweden. (translation of an article in a Swedish magazine)
Mink farming is
a disgusting industry... Mink are wild animals ... Kept
in barren cages they go mad... The argument that Britain
should allow mink farming because if we did not someone
else would do it is completely irrelevant... keeping
mink in cages is a cruelty that only debases our humanity.
Editorial, The Independent, 24 February 1999
When you go on the sort of expeditions I do, warmth
is very important. I never use fur. There are many more
suitable, practical and warmer man-made alternatives available.
Sir Chris Bonington, CBE, Mountaineer, in a letter
to CAFT-UK
