LITHUANIA, 22 AUGUST – Extremely shocking footage of a mink fur farm in Lithuania has revealed the atrocious conditions in which the animals are kept. The appalling video shows such distressing footage, several animal protection organisations have decided not to publish it. Lithuania is among the world’s largest mink fur producers, with as many as 2 million mink killed on fur farms each year.

The shocking video shows mink dying and heavily injured in small cages. One mink is injured so severely its organs are visibly coming out of its body, other mink are suffering terrible sores. The footage also shows numerous acts of cannibalism and aggression.

The sickening footage was shot by an undercover employee and published by the animal rights organisation Open Cages Lithuania yesterday. Gabriele Vaitkevičiūtė, head of Open Cages Lithuania, says

“In small cages, the basic needs of animals cannot be met, so these problems are not isolated cased but occur on all fur farms. Animal welfare problems such as cannibalism and injuries are inherent to fur farms and are a result from the caging conditions. It would be naive to think that confining a few predatory animals together in one cage would not create aggression.”

This is not the first revealed case of cruel animal mistreatment taking place on Lithuanian fur farms. In 2016, an investigation exposed similar welfare violations on mink farms in Lithuania.

Mink are predatory, wide-ranging animals that are not adapted to living in battery cages. On top of that, mink are solitary and semi-aquatic animals. The stress of living in small cages with other animals causes extreme abnormal behavior, such as cannibalism, self-mutilation and fighting injuries. When mink fall sick they are often left without any care on fur farms.

There are as many as 200 fur factory farms in Lithuania. Around 2 million mink, 4000 foxes and 50 000 chinchillas are killed every year on Lithuanian fur farms.