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).
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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, redaktør for det amerikanske industri blad Fur Age, som afslører hemmelighedsfuldheden i pelsindustrien, Fur Age, Oktober 1998.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
