Mink farming has faced bans across many European countries following welfare concerns and COVID-19 outbreaks in farm populations. Remaining operations face significant welfare scrutiny for stereotypic behaviour and spatial restriction.
Mink farming causes profound welfare harm that has driven its legal prohibition in most of Western Europe. Mink are highly motivated to swim, dive, and range across territories that cannot remotely be provided in wire cage systems. The prevalence of stereotypic behaviours — repetitive, invariant movements with no apparent goal — indicates chronic frustration and psychological suffering. Self-mutilation including tail chewing causes physical injury. The small wire cage environment prevents the expression of virtually all natural behaviours. Gas killing with CO2 at high concentrations causes distress and is a welfare concern at slaughter. The global phaseout trend reflects a scientific consensus that intensive mink farming is incompatible with acceptable welfare standards — a conclusion validated by decades of welfare research.