Mink farming confines solitary, semi-aquatic carnivores in small wire cages, denying them the space, water access, and behavioral complexity essential to their welfare throughout their shortened lives.
Mink farming represents a particularly stark welfare failure because the gap between the animals evolved behavioral ecology and farm conditions is so extreme. Mink evolved as solitary hunters of aquatic environments; farms house them in small wire cages without water to swim in, without the stimulation of hunting, and at densities that stress asocial individuals. The welfare evidence is reflected in the high prevalence of stereotypic behaviors — repeated, invariant movements that indicate chronic frustration of behavioral motivation. The decline of the fur industry in many markets is driven partly by consumer rejection of these welfare conditions.