Fur in Eure-et-Loir: The farm of horror

While checking which fur farms were still operating in France in order to prepare the animal welfare mission at which the association participates with the Ministry of Ecology, the investigators of One Voice discovered the horrors lurking in a mink farm located in the area of Eure-et-Loir: mink barely born, dying, stuck under the corpses of their congeners. Everywhere on this breeding farm, young and old dying in the middle of faeces and decomposing bodies. The cages are littered with dead mink often torn apart, sometimes mummified, over which the survivors crawl.

The association decided to stop its investigation to launch the alert on this breeding farm and ask for its immediate closure. A complaint for acts of Cruelty is to be filed on July 1 against this breeder, SCEA des Aubépines.

Participating in the animal welfare meetings of mink reared for their fur, the association (also French representative of the international coalition Fur Free Alliance) decided to check which fur farms were still operating in France and had reported in the winter of 2016/2017.

MACABRE DISCOVERIES

Our investigators have made a macabre discovery in addition to the facts alleged by our association with fur farms that was already revealed back in 2017.

Silver-blue, black and white minks exhibiting stereotypical behaviour: constantly turning in circles, signs recognized by the experts as the manifestation of abnormal characteristics, in installations of utter filth; wire cages on which minks have difficulty walking from where excrement and waste are dripping; mink (young and old) wounded, mutilated, dead, mummified; dead mink corpses around the farm without any precautions for the environment (fur farms are classified installations because they pose a significant risk to nature). During the breeding season, the young had mostly a few weeks of life.

Here the scandal of raising minks for their fur reaches a climax.

ONE VOICE REQUESTS IMMEDIATE CLOSURE OF THIS FARM of HORROR!

he association lodges a criminal complaint against the breeder for acts of cruelty, maltreatment committed by a professional and for improper exploitation of an establishment that holds non domestic animals. In addition, we are requesting an expert analysis on these animals’ welfare. How can the authorities endorse such practices? Survivors must be taken care of as soon as possible by the State, which has failed in its task by leaving them in such unworthy conditions.

This Wednesday, July 3 at 3.00 pm, the Minister of the Ecological and Solidarity Transition François de Rugy will receive all the protagonists of the animal welfare mission of captive wildlife for which the mink farms are concerned. Beyond the penal sanctions, this extremely cruel exploitation must be prohibited. This is the request we will make to the minister, of whom we expect to take strong action.

APPENDIX

• Campaign site: www.stop-fourrure.fr/en
• Our campaign clip
• Photos in High Definition
• Petition: www.stop-fourrure.fr/en/home/#petition
• Map of Europe on legislation concerning fur farms and sale.
• The luxury side of mink, 2017 report: visonslerespect.fr/fourrure/rapport-en.pdf
• 2016 Investigation : https://www.visonslerespect.fr/en
• Website of the Fur Free Alliance represented in France by One Voice