Fox fur farming is practiced primarily in Finland, Norway, and Poland, with welfare science consistently documenting severe behavioral problems in animals bred for massive size and kept in bare wire cages.
Fox farming combines the welfare problems of cage confinement with the additional concern of animals bred to biological extremes that impair their physical functioning. The morbidly obese blue fox of Finnish breeding programs is unable to leap, run, or engage in the behavioral repertoire of its wild relatives — a direct consequence of selection for pelt size over welfare. Scientific welfare assessments have been unambiguous about the severity of behavioral abnormalities in these populations. The legislative trend toward banning fox farming reflects both the strength of this evidence and changing social values about fur product acceptability.