Mink farming is declining globally following bans in many countries. Understanding the welfare concerns that drove these bans and the welfare of remaining farmed mink is important context.
Mink farming represents one of the clearest cases of fundamental incompatibility between a species' needs and a commercial production system. Mink are active, wide-ranging carnivores with strong motivation to swim, hunt, and explore - behaviours entirely denied in wire cage systems. The high prevalence of stereotypies in farmed mink reflects chronic frustration of these behaviours. Countries that have banned mink farming have done so on a sound welfare evidence base. Supporting campaigns for remaining mink farming countries to adopt bans eliminates this welfare harm at national scale.