Our fight against fur continues!

The closure of the most recent French mink fur farm is a true victory for our association and its long-term campaign against these farms, who have revealed their true colours year after year. Cruel, unsanitary, overpopulated and extremely harmful, they revealed themselves to the world as true breeding grounds for infectious diseases at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, particularly in Denmark and the Netherlands, However, we must not stop here!

Because what is the point of a ban on production for ethical and ecological reasons if selling is still allowed, thus perpetuating the extreme suffering of mink who end up self-mutilating through stress in their cramped cages? To definitively say no to the use of fur in ready-to-wear fashion, still very prevalent in China and in Russia, we must also stop the importation of it.

Since November 2021, we have continued to support our partners from Fur Free Alliance throughout the world and to offer the Free Fur Retailer (FFR) label to brands guaranteed to be fur-free. In September 2022, we also participated in the annual march against fur in Paris. So that our Swedish, Spanish and Polish neighbours can also begin to benefit from these measures, and so that mink, foxes, and raccoon dogs are no longer massacred on the whim of an unethical trend.

Since having published an investigation into luxury leather at the Sobeval veal slaughterhouse in Dordogne in August 2021, we have continued to report on the cruelty of farms that are usually hidden from us. Muriel Arnal, One Voice’s Founding President, has once again spoken on this subject at the Conscious Festival in Paris during the panel discussion on 2 October, set up in connection with the screening of the film Slay by our friend Rebecca Capelli.

Six months after it opening, the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), led by Eurogroup for Animals, has reached one million signatures throughout Europe. We still need half a million to validate this number and to force the European Commission to make decisions on these measures. To put an end to fur, a cause that is almost recognised in people’s minds despite some people’s vanity, we need to be successful in rallying much more! In France, only 75,000 of you have signed; this is infinitesimal in relation to the stakes of this campaign and to all of you who follow us and share our battles.

To get fur banned, we have an impressive direct democracy tool, a type of petition on steroids. Let’s not waste this opportunity! Until 18 May 2023, every signature counts. Yours, those of you who support One Voice, but also those from your close friends and family. If you know people with a large community on social media, this is also the time to convince them to talk about it and to invite others to join us. Animals are counting on you!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice