Have your say on a possible fur trade ban

[Conor O'Gorman]

As part of Defra’s animal welfare action plan the government has launched a call for evidence on The Fur Market in Great Britain.

The consultation runs until 28 June and is a potential precursor for a GB-wide ban on the sale and import of all fur from farmed and wild animals.

The survey response form contains a public attitudes section. Some of the questions about the sustainable use of animals are of significant concern. For example, people are asked whether ‘it’s wrong for animals to be killed for their fur’ and whether ‘it’s acceptable for fur to be produced as a by-product of legal hunting or population control’.

Such questions set a dangerous precedent because policy decisions on the utilisation of animals should be based on evidence rather than emotion.

The survey is open to anyone worldwide and you don’t have to answer every question to complete it.

Click here for Defra’s fur trade call for evidence

Click here for an evidence-based briefing from the British Fur Trade Association

Have Your Say

Even if you feel that the fur trade has nothing to do with your shooting interests, please take a few minutes to have your say and show solidarity with those that are producing sustainably produced fur.

A ban on the sale and import of fur from farmed and wild animals will not appease animal rights extremists who will continue to seek a ban on all animal products and on farming and fieldsports.

You can fill in an online survey form on the call for evidence website or you can email fur@defra.gov.uk with your comments.

[WalkedUp]

Madness. It will be leather next. 

[Scully]

13 minutes ago, WalkedUp said:

Madness. It will be leather next. 

If vegans get their way then yes, it will be. 

[islandgun]

1 hour ago, Scully said:

If vegans get their way then yes, it will be. 

if vegans get their way there wont be any farm animals, except in the odd farm zoo.. we wont have wool, milk, leather etc etc .  our uplands will have scrub trees and wildfires and our lowlands will be intensive mono cropping no hedgerows and agricultural runoff. no matter because the rest of the world will carry on as usual and we will be able to buy our soya from them..😄

[Vince Green]

How much fur trade is there now? compared to years ago I mean?

[WalkedUp]

My wife has a fur coat that was her great grandmothers. How much more sustainable can you be? 

[Old farrier]

It’s going to affect trophy hunting and the possibility of not being able to take a rabbit home 

just wondering if my flying jacket and sheep skin mittens  would be included if I’m wearing them when I fly across the channel 

[Scully]

1 hour ago, islandgun said:

if vegans get their way there wont be any farm animals, except in the odd farm zoo.. we wont have wool, milk, leather etc etc .  our uplands will have scrub trees and wildfires and our lowlands will be intensive mono cropping no hedgerows and agricultural runoff. no matter because the rest of the world will carry on as usual and we will be able to buy our soya from them..😄

Indeed. Quite ironic that many vegans claim it will save animals if we all turn vegan, when in fact it means the mass extinction of domestic farmed animals. 
Another example of not thinking things through. 

[islandgun]

6 hours ago, Scully said:

Indeed. Quite ironic that many vegans claim it will save animals if we all turn vegan, when in fact it means the mass extinction of domestic farmed animals. 
Another example of not thinking things through. 

Its not even a difficult thought. I had a protracted argument with a vegan on FB, I posted a picture of me holding a piece of recently shot venison before putting it in the freezer and she objected, a quick look at her profile showed she loved cats and Harris tweed. Turns out she fed her cats meat and made no further reply after i pointed out that you need sheep to make Tweed 

[Scully]

13 minutes ago, islandgun said:

Its not even a difficult thought. I had a protracted argument with a vegan on FB, I posted a picture of me holding a piece of recently shot venison before putting it in the freezer and she objected, a quick look at her profile showed she loved cats and Harris tweed. Turns out she fed her cats meat and made no further reply after i pointed out that you need sheep to make Tweed 

😂 Brilliant! I’ve had similar debates, when you can almost hear them hastily backtracking when I’ve pointed out to them that if we didn’t eat meat those animals would cease to exist. 

[Windswept]

Call me a snowflake if you like but I don't support the battery farming of animals such as mink for fur and I was surprised to see how many mink were farmed in the EU. I support using products such as leather, sheep skin etc where the animal hasn't been shut in a tiny cage all its life. And I fully support those who process deer and rabbit skins etc.

Living in the middle of a predominately dairy area it's not just vegan food production that produces agricultural run off, there's plenty of slurry and human waste getting spread round here ending up in the streams sadly.

[islandgun]

2 hours ago, Windswept said:

Call me a snowflake if you like but I don't support the battery farming of animals such as mink for fur and I was surprised to see how many mink were farmed in the EU. I support using products such as leather, sheep skin etc where the animal hasn't been shut in a tiny cage all its life. And I fully support those who process deer and rabbit skins etc.

Living in the middle of a predominately dairy area it's not just vegan food production that produces agricultural run off, there's plenty of slurry and human waste getting spread round here ending up in the streams sadly.

cant disagree with any of that. I would be happy to support [try to] much less intensive farming systems, where the farmer receives a decent reward for a premium product raised in an ethical way,  however it would be hard to persuade joe blogs to pay double for his fried chicken   

[clangerman]

4 minutes ago, islandgun said:

it would be hard to persuade joe blogs to pay double for his fried chicken   

your not wrong just paid £6.25 in miss millies two pieces of over cooked chicken half a dozen chips and coke last of my money they will see when morrison’s sell whole cooked chickens for a fiver 

[WalkedUp]

2 minutes ago, clangerman said:

your not wrong just paid £6.25 in miss millies two pieces of over cooked chicken half a dozen chips and coke last of my money they will see when morrison’s sell whole cooked chickens for a fiver 

How they can rear a decent chicken for £5.00 let alone cook and sell it boggles the mind. Our free range chicken for supper tonight was £10-£15 for the meat alone. 

[clangerman]

Just now, WalkedUp said:

How they can rear a decent chicken for £5.00 let alone cook and sell it boggles the mind. Our free range chicken for supper tonight was £10-£15 for the meat alone. 

certainly can’t complain at the price leave it to late they are all sold one of the few food bargains out there 

[stumfelter]

To cage rear an animal for it's skin seems wrong to me...

[Jim Neal]

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It's like getting hit by a steam train in super-slow motion.

[Old farrier]

4 hours ago, stumfelter said:

To cage rear an animal for it's skin seems wrong to me...

But ok for eggs chicken salmon?

remembering that most food animals are kept in field or barn with supplementary feeding technically a cage 

along  with our kennelled dogs 

where do we stop 

far to many rules being made to generate votes 

we can all make a decision not to buy something thereby reducing the demand and no more sales equals no more business 

 

[243deer]

I think virtue signalling should be banned as it is both discriminatory and inherently hypocritical

 

[Benthejockey]

Personally I haven't got a problem with fur farming as long as its done as humanely as possible. A lot of us kept ferrets as kids and some keep them now, as long as they have food, water and some enrichment the little cat snakes are quite happy in their cages and there's no reason mink should be any less happy after all they're just bigger angrier ferrets. The majority of us on here shoot foxes either as our main bitnof sport or as an aside, if the fur trade hadn't been crippled in this country by allowing the activists to get their way rather than chopping their hands off or better still their heads, there would be an outlet for the thousands of foxes that get shot to bits every year.

As for chicken a local farmer with a broiler shed told me last Xmas that as a nation we produce only 75% of the chicken breast we consume in the UK but 150% of the leg and thigh meat. People want so much chicken we have to import foreign stuff but they're too lazy to pick it off the bone and eat the tastier thigh meat! Free range chicken although you might think its worth the extra doesn't cost significantly more to produce than a shed reared bird, the only difference is its a little bit older and they open the shed door. I rear my own meat chickens occasionally and they're very tasty! But they go over weight before they're finished - which is fine for us but I doubt many people would know what to do with a 10lb chicken - once they go much over 2/3 months old it's a balancing act trying to keep them alive long enough to kill them!

 

[islandgun]

 The Mink cull in Denmark. some said covid was an excuse to end the trade. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54890229

 

 

3 hours ago, Benthejockey said:

 

As for chicken a local farmer with a broiler shed told me last Xmas that as a nation we produce only 75% of the chicken breast we consume in the UK but 150% of the leg and thigh meat. People want so much chicken we have to import foreign stuff but they're too lazy to pick it off the bone and eat the tastier thigh meat! Free range chicken although you might think its worth the extra doesn't cost significantly more to produce than a shed reared bird, the only difference is its a little bit older and they open the shed door. I rear my own meat chickens occasionally and they're very tasty! But they go over weight before they're finished - which is fine for us but I doubt many people would know what to do with a 10lb chicken - once they go much over 2/3 months old it's a balancing act trying to keep them alive long enough to kill them!

 

Indeed Ive raised quite a few broiler birds completely free range, they get to some size and the taste is far superior if not tougher, what i found interesting upon dressing, was how their heart become encased in a thick layer of hard fat.  

Edited June 13, 2021 by islandgun

[Benthejockey]

2 hours ago, islandgun said:

 The Mink cull in Denmark. some said covid was an excuse to end the trade. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54890229

 

 

Indeed Ive raised quite a few broiler birds completely free range, they get to some size and the taste is far superior if not tougher, what i found interesting upon dressing, was how their heart become encased in a thick layer of hard fat.  

They do put down a lot of fat. Same with the turkeys too although they pluck a lot better when they've got nice big fat pads!

[stumfelter]

16 hours ago, Old farrier said:

But ok for eggs chicken salmon?

remembering that most food animals are kept in field or barn with supplementary feeding technically a cage 

along  with our kennelled dogs 

where do we stop 

far to many rules being made to generate votes 

we can all make a decision not to buy something thereby reducing the demand and no more sales equals no more business 

 

Sorry, I didn't realise that mink farmers took their stock for a walk twice a day....

[Old farrier]

5 minutes ago, stumfelter said:

Sorry, I didn't realise that mink farmers took their stock for a walk twice a day....

Possibly not the best analogy however how far is it going to be taken first one then the next then cut some more 

and I’m sure there’s plenty of kennel dogs that don’t get two walks a day 

[12gauge82]

I agree with the majority on here so long as it is done in a humane way. As hunters we wouldnt take a shot unless it is with the correct calibre for the game, within exceptable range and we have a shot on with good odds of delivering a humane dispatch. I have no issue with fur production provided it is done ethically providing the animals have a decent existence and a humane end. 

Living in a tiny cage it's entire life is not right in my opinion.