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Up Against the Wall - A Critical Look at Norwegian Fur Production
August 2009
The fur industry is at risk of being shut down
if it canít clean up at once, asserts the Minister of Agriculture.
Lars Peder Brekk threatens to withdraw his political support of the industry
after activists uncovered devastating animal cruelty at several fur farms.
Their back is up against the wall.
If they donít manage to clean up their act, then the industry will lose their political support.
October 2010
Nobody wants anything more from their packs?
No...
Now weíre going to visit a fur farm in Sogn and Fjordane
where they have foxes and minks.
Weíve been there before
and weíre going back to see how conditions are now.
When it comes to the treatment of animals
one question that comes up is
what is the natural behavior of animals?
Itís not just that they like to do it
or that they can do it if they have the opportunity,
but that they have this instinct to do it.
For foxes itís necessary to be able to burrow
and therefore they have the need to dig.
They have big dens with many entrances and exits
and you can see that they burrow...
I have seen it many times.
They just dig down.
During wintertime mountain foxes go nuts in the snow,
building tunnels at full speed.
And also in the summer.
But for animals at a fur farm
they donít have the possibility to do that.
That just adds to the general frustration
that these animals certainly must feel.
Itís the same with running around,
hiding, poking around, going into bushes and running across large fields.
They arenít able to exercise any of these instincts.
We are getting closer to the farm
so weíre turning on the walkie-talkies.
We use walkie-talkies because we donít want to have a confrontation with the farmer
or bump into anyone.
We just want to get inside the farm,
film, document the conditions and get out again
without being discovered.
Now weíre at the farm.
This is a typical Norwegian fur farm,
but this farm has electric wires set up over the whole fence.
This is what one sees at Norwegian fur farms now
they do what they can to hide what theyíre doing.
They do this with alarms, electric fences,
anything to prevent people from documenting what is going on.
The way the fur industry is operated today
is such that animals arenít able to satisfy their basic needs.
Through observation, one can also see
that animals are often restless and have abnormal behavior under such conditions.
This says everything about the way the animals are treated.
One must not think of these animals as domesticated.
They have a very high level of pure instinct in them
and itís much more difficult for them to adapt
to a world that we want to control.
So unfortunately I donít think this way of treating them
is in the animalsí best interests.
A car just came
and we thought maybe we set off an alarm.
So we had to run away.
Things like that can happen.
What weíre thinking now is to drive to the next farm.
It is the same with minks and their need to behave naturally.
They are very connected to water.
They have their territories
that they defend with tooth and nail.
And they swim and catch fish and...
Many think that when theyíre in cages then they are happy
because they donít have to catch fish
and the fox doesnít have to go hunting,
so then the fox and mink are very happy.
But thatís not the case, for they arenít able to
exercise their basic instincts.
This is the third consecutive year
that weíve been visiting fur farms around the whole country.
In 2008 we visited over one hundred farms
in all counties that have fur farming in Norway.
Last year we visited approximately 45 farms
and this year weíve visited over 30 farms
all around the country.
One can see that animals are unhappy and uncomfortable in cages
in that they adopt behaviors that they donít have in nature.
We recognize this from many other species
as we have seen the same in zoos.
They bob and weave their heads,
they walk around restlessly, aimlessly,
there are no normal movement patterns.
This illustrates how the animals live at the fur farms,
they donít get an outlet for their normal behaviors
and they begin to do things that they donít normally do in the wild.
Fur farming hasnít changed in the last few years
even though that is what the industry and politicians want to believe.
In 2002 there was the government report concerning the treatment of animals
and then the government at that time gave the fur industry an ultimatum,
saying that they should clean up the industry within the next few years
if they want to continue.
But after that we have seen
more and more of how everyday life really is at fur farms.
Due to this, we have to act.
This is quite disturbing.
These are animals that like to run
and must be able to satisfy their need for activity.
And here they only have about a meter to do it.
Back and forth.
The wire netting has pretty big holes.
Thatís not very comfortable.
Itís astounding to me that those involved can look at this every day
and sleep well at night.
And say ìmy foxes have good lives,
because they hop around the whole day.î
No, I donít want to watch any more of this.
Now weíve come to the farm.
Itís a fox farm.
One can see that there are several sheds with tons of foxes.
And they just have so little room to move, their whole lives,
with just a small shelf.
Here are both breeding animals and the pups that are a couple months old.
Fox pups live until they are around 6 to 8 months old.
They are killed in the winter and born in the spring.
One can see that many of the animals are very scared.
They arenít used to people at all.
We always try to walk around the farms very carefully when we are here.
So as not to stress them out even more.
There we can see him biting.
He is probably socially inferior and doesnít fight back.
He sits and gnaws on the other oneís neck.
It must take a long time to get such an ugly wound.
Completely unbelieveable!
That poor white one is missing his ears,
there are just some bloody stubs,
on both sides!
There we see...
oh my, oh my...
There we see right into the ear canal.
Horrible!
It looks like that one eye...
this is so cruel...
Oh, thereís straw and dirt in...
or probably feces,
in that wound there.
I think this one eye on the white one is completely closed shut and canít open.
Yes, heís not opening his eye.
No, no, no...
That one canít walk normally either.
This is some of the worst Iíve ever seen.
These have begun to gnaw on each other...
It is a general frustration.
They have such horrible lives in relation to what they should have
that their normal behavior has more or less collapsed here.
The whole thing has broken down.
This shows the complete obliteration of the animalsí natural behavior.
Dirty and horrible.
Notice how big the holes are in the wire netting.
They manage to move on the wire netting only with great difficulty.
This shames Norwegian agriculture greatly.
Incredible shame!
When one is at a fur farm, itís a very strange feeling
that is marked by a very strong stench.
Because all the feces just go right down to the ground.
So itís a very unique smell that hits you
already before you reach the farm.
And there are often sounds from animals that dig at the wire netting
or run back and forth
or animals that scream, bark or howl.
Here is a fox that is apparently very frustrated
He digs and digs at the wire netting,
trying to get out,
just to have something to do.
That is very common to see.
We see this kind of behavior at every single fur farm.
Iíve even seen foxes that have dug so much
that their paws begin to bleed, because they never stop...
There is nothing else they can do.
This here is quite awful...
Is that one missing a tail?
No...I donít think so.
That one doesnít have a tail.
Here is another one without a tail.
Here we see that all these cages
have foxes that are missing tails.
This year weíve gone out again.
And the conditions are exactly the same
because this is what fur farming is.
This is what is normal.
Fur farming is animals that stand in cages,
running aimlessly around in a circle,
biting at the wire netting, digging, trying to get out,
biting themselves, biting others around them.
Itís not possible to run a fur farm any other way.
This is what happens
when you put wild animals in cages.
Here is a fox thatís missing an eye.
It looks like that one has a very acute eye inflammation.
We canít see that eye. Itís almost gone.
Weíre going out now.
Weíre just heading towards the fence so you can sit there a little longer.
We know very well that every time we leave a fur farm
there are animals that will be killed
and will end up as a fur collar or a fur coat.
But nevertheless we also know that
by showing what actually goes on there
we are getting closer to stopping it.
I donít feel that there are any alternatives for us
other than to continue to do this.
To continue to show people whatís happening at fur farms
and continue to ask people to consider
taking action against fur farming.
I believe that the only conclusion
I come to as to what we should do
is to just bite the bullet and say:
ìThis is unacceptable.î
We need to do what we have done in other countries.
They just said ìThis is unacceptableî
And itís not, because...
Some people in Norway think that
it is perhaps possible to regulate it.
Regulate it in another way. A little better.
But that doesnít work.
Especially not when those involved
both on the operational side and the regulation side
fail so completely as they do here.
Neither the Ministry of Agriculture
nor the regulating authorities
nor the industry itself can defend this at all.
No, itís just unacceptable.
This industry must simply be shut down.
For more information on what you can do, go to www.forbypels.no/english or www.dyrebeskyttelsen.no/english
People must take responsibility here.
If it costs something to get rid of an industry
then society must eat the cost so that the
poor people that keep on with that industry
donít have to continue to do that due to economic reasons.
Then one must take charge
and say that here you have to readjust.
It wonít be the first time in human history
that an activity must stop.
We cannot remain stagnant for years
discussing back and forth.
That is the thing that provokes me the most with issues like this.
It is much better to make a deadline and say
for the rest of 2010 they are exempt
but after December 31st fur farming wonít exist in Norway.
Over and done with.