Mink farming for fur has faced increasing bans and phase-outs worldwide due to fundamental welfare incompatibilities between mink natural behaviour and cage-based farming systems.
Mink farming represents a case where the welfare evidence is sufficiently overwhelming to justify complete prohibition. Mink's semi-aquatic nature, large territorial range, and carnivore cognitive complexity make them profoundly unsuited to cage-based farming. The stereotypic behaviours present in the majority of farmed mink are not individual problems but system-level indicators that the farming environment cannot meet basic species needs. The global trend toward mink farming bans reflects a welfare-based regulatory response to this evidence. Where bans are not yet in place, consumers have direct purchasing power: avoiding fur products from mink and ensuring any fur purchased is certified synthetic removes market incentives for a system that cannot be reformed to adequate welfare standards.