Mink farming confines semi-aquatic predators in small wire cages causing severe welfare deficits. Understanding the evidence supports advocacy for industry phase-out.
Mink fur farming welfare is among the clearest cases of systemic animal welfare failure in legal agriculture. The mismatch between the species' evolved needs — spatial ranging, swimming, solitary territorial behavior — and wire cage confinement is fundamental, not incidental. Welfare improvement within the system is constrained by the impossibility of providing adequate space and water access at commercial scale. The welfare conclusion reached by multiple independent scientific reviews, including the European Commission's own assessment, is that acceptable welfare for mink cannot be achieved in conventional farming conditions.