Mutated Mink Coronavirus Pushes Global Fur Industry to a Breaking Point
Minks and other animals exploited for fur are typically confined to cramped wire cages. Many don’t have enough room to turn around or even fully stretch out, and the conditions in which they’re forced to live are filthy. As a result of severe stress, animals on fur farms often resort to self-mutilation or cannibalization of their cagemates. Injured animals in the fur industry commonly receive no veterinary care. It’s no surprise that these horrid fur factory farm conditions have led to a growing number of countries with mink COVID-19 outbreaks. This deadly new threat is yet another reason why PETA and compassionate people everywhere are calling for an immediate end to the global fur trade.
The following countries have reported COVID-19 outbreaks on mink farms:
Ireland has slaughtered minks en masse as a precautionary measure.
COVID-19 and Other Diseases Flourish on Fur Farms
It isn’t just the novel coronavirus—a wide variety of pathogens can infect foxes, raccoon dogs, and minks. Some of the diseases they cause, including tularemia, hepatitis E, and influenza, are zoonotic, meaning that they can result when pathogens are spread from animals to humans.
Hepatitis E, a viral disease, can cause swelling and damage of the liver, jaundice, and lack of appetite in humans. Tularemia is a bacterial disease that commonly affects fur handlers—even a small number of bacteria can cause potentially lethal infections.
Any industry in which humans handle animals poses a risk of animal-to-human transmission of a newly evolved virus or outbreaks of disease. For the sake of animals, humans, and our planet, we must end fur farming.
What You Can Do to Help
It’s quick and easy to join PETA’s efforts to help prevent minks and other animals from being killed for fur—all you have to do is urge brands to stop selling it! Hundreds of thousands of people have already taken up the call.
It only takes a minute to fire off multiple messages to retailers and designers, so what are you waiting for? Get started:
