VILNIUS, 30 OCTOBER 2018 – Yesterday a bill to ban fur farming in Lithuania was presented at a press conference in the Lithuanian Parliament. The law proposal was introduced by a cross-party group of three Lithuanian Members of Parliament. The first reading of the bill is expected to take place before 2019.

In recent years, a number of investigations have revealed appalling conditions on fur farms in Lithuania, a country where more than 2 million animals are killed each year on fur farms. The most recently published investigation, in August 2018, showed alarming footage of severely injured mink and caused a heated debate on banning fur production. According to a 2016 public opinion survey, two-thirds of the Lithuanian population is against fur farming.

Severe welfare problems are inherent to fur farms. Mink and foxes are predatory, wide-ranging animals that are not adapted to living in battery cages. The stress of living in small cages with other animals causes extreme abnormal behavior, such as cannibalism, self-mutilation and fighting injuries.

Since there is no humane way to keep animals on fur cage farms, in the last two decades 14 European countries have adopted legislation to make an end to fur farming. This year alone, fur farming ban legislation was introduced in Norway, Belgium and Luxembourg.