Mink farming for fur has been banned or is being phased out in a growing number of countries based on evidence that the welfare of these semi-aquatic carnivores cannot be adequately met in cage farming systems.
Mink farming welfare presents a case where the scientific evidence for irreducible welfare harm has been sufficiently compelling to drive legislative bans in a growing number of jurisdictions. The core welfare problem is that mink are semi-aquatic carnivores whose behavioral needs, including swimming, diving, and prey capture, cannot be met in the wire cage systems of commercial fur farming. The high prevalence of stereotypic behavior in farmed mink is not a management failure that can be corrected but a symptom of a fundamental mismatch between the species' behavioral needs and the constraints of any viable commercial production system. The European Commission's scientific assessment that mink welfare cannot be adequately protected in farming systems provides a model for evidence-based welfare policymaking, and the expanding list of countries implementing bans reflects international recognition of this conclusion.