The fur industry threatened by the coronavirus crisis

A mink farm on a farm in Denmark.

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The fur sector denounced this Saturday an "instrumentalisation" of the Covid-19 crisis to accelerate the closure of four French mink farms.

These farms should close "within five years", according to an announcement from the Ministry of Ecological Transition made in September.

LREM deputy Loïc Dombreval called for the acceleration of the process in the name of the “precautionary principle”.

Denmark this week announced the mass slaughter of all mink in the kingdom - 15 to 17 million animals.

According to Danish authorities, a mutated version of the coronavirus, which could threaten the effectiveness of a vaccine, was transmitted by mink to twelve people.

A "dishonest and irresponsible" instrumentalisation

"France has not presented any case of Covid-19 to date in its mink farms," ​​said the French Fourrure association in a press release.

“Trying to exploit the pandemic crisis to attack again a profession representing 2,500 jobs […] would be dishonest and irresponsible.

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The association condemns the "ideological postures against breeding" relayed by elected officials who seek to "break down sectors" and push "animal activists to attack breeders".

The association recalls that the sector pleads for a tightening of the French regulations on the breeding of mink in order to "put an end to the abuses as regards animal welfare".

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• Covid 19

• Society

• Breeding

• Coronavirus

• Denmark

• Fur