The latest investigation into Italian mink farms reveals the living conditions these animals are forced to endure and underscores the urgency of a law to ban them. An editorial by Simone Montuschi, spokesperson for Essere Animali.
The American mink is the only animal farmed in Italy for fur production. It is born in captivity inside cages where it will spend its entire life, yet its nature is wild. This is demonstrated, among other things, by the fact that a farmer must wear very thick protective gloves to handle it without getting hurt. The mink, in fact, is afraid of human beings and tends to bite or scratch.
We know everything about its life on the farm. Over four years, Essere Animali has released three investigations documenting the conditions of the 200,000 mink still locked inside the twenty or so farms that remain active in Italy. The latest investigation, published just a few days ago, once again shows animals with injuries and carcasses inside the cages. The footage, narrated by Rosita Celentano, was covered by daily newspapers during Milan Fashion Week, and also spread through street demonstrations and petitions to reaffirm the need for a law introducing a ban on fur farming in our country.
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The fact that the battle against fur has always been fought by animal rights organisations goes without saying. In the hi-tech era we live in, in which a great many materials have been developed that are equally warm without requiring atrocities to be committed against animals, it quite simply reeks of needless cruelty. Those who support fur assert the freedom to dress as one sees fit in a society that has already chosen to farm and kill animals — even when unnecessary — to satisfy its own needs, the foremost being food. We could counter this claim in a thousand ways. First and foremost, the majority of people would like to ban fur farming — specifically 86.3 per cent of Italians, according to the Rapporto Italia 2016 published by Eurispes. Furthermore, if we think about it, it is absurd to reason in this way, because adopting such a premise would always justify acceptance of the status quo.
But the real point is another. Setting aside the debate on the morality of fur for a moment and focusing on mink farms: these must be banned immediately because they cause immense suffering to animals for whom confinement in a cage is torture. Mink, locked in a space of just 70×35 centimetres, are not domesticated animals. Not that it would be impossible to domesticate them, but over the years it became clear that the pursuit — through selective breeding — of an animal with a more docile temperament that could better adapt to life in a cage conflicted with another, more important objective: the quality of the fur. It is easy to guess which aspect the fur industry chose to prioritise.
In a cage, a wild animal is more frequently subject to stereotypical behaviours, acts of self-harm and aggression towards other individuals sharing the same fate. In the case of a semi-aquatic animal like the mink, whose wellbeing necessarily depends on contact with water, the stress caused by this life is multiplied enormously. Essere Animali's investigations have documented all of this through the placement of hidden cameras and the work of an undercover operative inside the farms. The footage, broadcast by national television news programmes, also shows the moment of killing, which takes place by placing the animals in gas chambers. With the Visoni liberi campaign we are calling for a law to ban this type of farming. Several countries have already done so, and important signals are also coming from the world of fashion.
Members of parliament from the Movimento 5 stelle, Partito democratico and Forza Italia have for years tabled bills to ban fur farming, yet these have never been scheduled for debate. Adding insult to injury is the fact that these farms should have been prohibited since 2008. Indeed, the suffering of wild animals such as mink kept in cages is so self-evident that the legislative decree of 26 March 2001, no. 146 ("Attuazione della direttiva 98/58/CE relativa alla protezione degli animali negli allevamenti") had already provided for their closure. That decree did not ban farming per se, but stipulated that it would have to take place in ground-level enclosures containing water pools to allow mink to bathe and to enjoy a greater freedom of movement. The "adding insult to injury" comes from the fact that, just days before the decree came into force, the Ministry of the Environment issued a note reinstating the use of cages, leaving farmers free to decide whether to continue using them or to convert them into costly and impractical ground-level enclosures. Can you guess what happened? All of them kept the cages, in which mink are still confined to this day.
The release of this third investigation has, however, prompted a parliamentary question from the Honourable Donatella Duranti of the Movimento per la democrazia (Mpd), who is seeking clarification on precisely these matters. Mink farms have not yet been abolished "solely" because of the current political inertia surrounding all matters relating to animal welfare reforms — certainly not because the concerns about conditions on these farms are unfounded.
Just as the sale of dog and cat fur was banned — a prohibition in which Italy was a pioneer, with the adoption of a measure subsequently extended to the entire European Union — the day will come, in the not too distant future, when mink farming too will be banned. And it is not the determination that drives all battles for civilisation that fuels this optimism, but the condition of those animals who today, by law, can be shamefully kept in these conditions.