Mink farming causes significant welfare problems for a semi-aquatic, wide-ranging predator confined in small wire cages. The welfare case against mink farming is among the strongest in animal agriculture.
Mink farming produces severe welfare problems that are difficult to mitigate within existing production systems. The fundamental mismatch between mink behavioral ecology and cage confinement is extreme: these semi-aquatic predators with large home ranges are confined to cages that prevent swimming, hunting, wide-ranging movement, and most of their normal behavioral repertoire. The behavioral consequences — high rates of stereotypy, self-mutilation, and aggression — are among the most severe documented in any farmed species. Unlike some farmed animals where enrichment within existing systems can provide meaningful welfare improvement, mink welfare problems are largely structural: no practical modification of wire cage systems can provide swimming access or home range approximation. The welfare case for ending mink farming rather than reforming it is strong.