World’s largest fur auction house will close as demand for animal pelts drops
The Netherlands has announced it will move up its deadline to close down mink fur farms by two years, to 2021. France recently announced it will phase out fur farming. And last month, Israel became the first country to announce it will ban the fur trade. Photo by Dreamstime
The world’s largest fur auction house says it will close its doors for good within the next three years, in yet another dramatic setback for this cruel trade that contributes to unnecessary suffering and death for millions of animals worldwide each year.
Kopenhagen Fur, founded in 1930, acts as a broker for fur pelts produced in Denmark, where it is based, and around the world. As we’ve been reporting, the past few years have seen steep drops in pelt prices and stockpiles left unsold at fur auctions and against this backdrop, news of the closure appears as imminent as it is welcome.
The announcement also comes on the heels of rising coronavirus infections reported among mink in a number of countries, including Denmark, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States. Denmark last week said it would slaughter all 15 million mink on its 1,000 mink fur farms in the country following concerns that a mutation in the virus that has infected the mink could possibly interfere with the effectiveness of a vaccine for humans—a concern confirmed this week by a report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
The Netherlands, after killing millions of mink on its fur farms, announced it will move up its deadline to close them all by two years, to 2021. France recently announced it will phase out fur farming. And last month, Israel became the first country to announce it will ban the fur trade.
One U.S. state, California, has already banned the sale of fur products, and earlier this month, the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, passed a similar ban. With realistic, manmade alternatives to fur easily available, major fashion designers, retailers and consumers are also increasingly turning away from this commodity. Ending the use of fur in fashion is our priority and we are stepping up our efforts to send it, as quickly as possible, into the annals of history.
Fur trade should be totally banned.
I agree! The fur trade should be
100% banned. It’s a barbaric, cruel and inhumane practice! Should have been banned a long time ago.
God gave the animals fur to keep their bodies warm and to be able to survive outside. Not for us to hurt, abuse & exploit them!
Agree
Two years is too long. Never again should you ever raise mink. Nobody wants real fur. All fur farms must close.
Well, nothing keeps one warmer than fur. And if you live in the cold areas of the earth, it makes sense to me. And the rest of the animal becomes feed, e.t.c. – like sending your horse to a dog food company. I am not about cruelty, but there is no reason to stop the fur trade. (And if your argument is about the animals, stop eating any animal.)
It’s not necessary to have fur coats, there are other materials that keep you just as warm. These animals are tortured do you realize that?
Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!?
Great work, this is so important.
No more Cruelty. Keep up the Awesome work.
Thank you so much!
Bc furrs aint worth nothing anymore these days so ppl dont trap and more
It is about time this ridiculous trend that lasted centuries starts to stop, before syntetics and with the genuine need for warm clothing, the use of fur was somewhat justified, in modern times is nothing more than a barbaric abuse of animals
Thank God for this. Its about time that we stop abusing and killing animals for no reason other than just pure vanity.
Happy to hear-finally some progress! Perhaps something positive has come from Covid. It’s sickening thousands of animals have been gassed in the meantime but their future was pretty dim looking anyways. Humanity is finally changing its attitude towards wild life and pets. Hope factory farming is next.
Good we got technology now to create faux fur and faux leather so stop killing animals for fur is the best news … Wish china would follow and stop killing dogs and cats at least ..
Thank you for the hopeful post. To Update: Denmark had planned to kill the 17 million mink on the1,139 farms, but at about 2.8 mil killed, the political parties claimed it to be illegal and though the PM tried then to ban all fur farms until December 31 2021, once again the political parties stopped her. Likely that the corrupt Furriers are behind it. All hope that mk Gila Gamliel is to sign her amendment to ban the sale of Blood Fashion Fur in Israel.
I agree. Times have changed. We can and must do better.