Mink fur farming is being phased out across much of Europe, with welfare evidence about stereotypic behaviour and inadequate habitat driving policy change.
Farmed mink suffer fundamentally from an irreconcilable mismatch between their natural ecology and the conditions of fur farming. As semi-aquatic predators, they are motivated to swim, hunt, and explore territories that cages cannot provide. High stereotypy rates indicate chronic frustration of these drives. The phase-out of mink farming across northern Europe represents one of the clearest welfare-driven policy success stories of recent decades.