Mink farming for the fur industry raises major welfare concerns due to the species' poor adaptation to captivity, with welfare science supporting bans now enacted in many countries.
Farmed mink experience chronic welfare compromise because they retain the behavioral needs of wild predators while being confined in conditions that prevent expression of nearly all natural behaviors. The frustration of swimming, hunting, and territorial behavior drives high rates of stereotypy and aggression. Mink are not domesticated animals adapted to confinement and decades of selective breeding for fur traits have not resolved this fundamental incompatibility. Welfare science strongly supports the conclusion that mink cannot achieve acceptable welfare in commercial farming systems, underpinning the policy decisions of those countries that have implemented bans.