Mink farming for fur involves keeping semi-aquatic predators in small wire cages. Over 20 countries have banned mink farming on welfare grounds, making it a landmark example of welfare-based legislative reform.
Mink farming represents one of the clearest cases of systematic welfare failure in animal agriculture. The match between mink natural behaviour and cage conditions is almost entirely absent. Mink are motivated hunters requiring access to water, complex terrain, and wide ranging movement. Wire cage confinement causes profound frustration of all these drives. The resulting stereotypic behaviours documented in the majority of farmed mink indicate severe chronic suffering. Self-mutilation including tail-biting and circular gnawing wounds require veterinary attention or culling. Multiple independent assessments of mink welfare under farming conditions have contributed to ban decisions across Europe, making this a case study in evidence-based welfare legislation.