Activists release images of foxes at Finnish fur farms to push EU to ban the trade

GENEVA — A red fox frantically scratches the wires of its small cage. Finnish advocacy group Oikeutta Elaimille, or Justice for Animals, and Humane Society International have released images taken from an “undercover investigation” at three fur farms in western Finland in late October to highlight the behind-the-scenes realities of the trade. it creates a false image of normal lab animal welfare and animal keeping in the farms,” said FIFUR spokesman Olli-Pekka Nissinen, adding that his group believed the initiative to ban fur farming will be rejected. “Animal welfare first shows in the animals’ fur and it’s very important for farmers to take care of the animals so that they can have decent incomes.” FIFUR says most of its 442 member farms — as of December last year — are run by family businesses, and nearly all the farms are in the Ostrobothnia region along the Baltic Sea. Humane Society International, in a statement last month, said tens of millions of animals suffer and die each year in the global fur trade and the “vast majority of animals killed for their fur are kept in barren battery cages on fur farms.” Finland, the advocacy group said, is one of the last European countries where farming such animals for their fur remains legal — and finger-pointed a number of retail brands that use fox fur from Finland.