As mink farming bans spread across Europe and beyond, ensuring the welfare of remaining mink populations and supporting farmers through transition are critical welfare and policy priorities.
Mink are among the farmed animals whose welfare needs are most incompatible with industrial farming systems. The scientific evidence that farmed mink suffer chronic frustration, fear, and behavioural deprivation is robust — welfare research consistently finds high rates of stereotypy, fear responses to humans, and physiological stress indicators in cage-housed mink. Countries that have banned mink farming are acting in response to this evidence. For countries where farming continues, meaningful welfare standards — larger cages, water access, and environmental enrichment — can reduce but cannot eliminate the fundamental welfare costs of captive mink production.