The fundamental welfare case against mink farming rests on the impossibility of meeting mink behavioral needs within intensive farming frameworks, making reform rather than phase-out inadequate.
Mink farming presents a case where the fundamental incompatibility between the species' behavioral needs and intensive farming conditions makes meaningful welfare reform impossible within the farming framework. Unlike some farmed animals where better housing, enrichment, and management can substantially improve welfare, mink in any intensive farming context will continue to exhibit high rates of stereotypic behavior reflecting profound behavioral frustration. This is not a welfare reform problem — it is a welfare problem that has no reform solution within the cage-farming model. Phase-out, not reform, is the welfare response this evidence demands.