Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:

• Millions of fur-bearing animals are intensively farmed and killed for their fur every year in Canada;
• Animals kept on fur farms are confined in small, wire cages for their entire lives until they are killed in accordance with National Farm
• Animal Care Council requirements: gas chambers (mink) or anal electrocution (foxes);
• The captive breeding and extreme confinement of wild animals results in negative animal welfare outcomes such as severe stress, stereotypic behaviours, and inability to engage in natural behaviours;
• Government agencies provide public funding to the fur farm sector despite industry decline;
• Mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have occurred in Europe as a result of human-animal transmission, jeopardizing COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness;
• Mink and workers on fur farms in British Columbia have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus;
• Fur farms pose a public health and environmental risk in the event of a virus spillover into wild or domestic animal populations;
• The World Health Organization advocates for a One Health approach which puts animals at the centre of public policy in creating better health outcomes;
• The UN Environment Programme has listed "unsustainable agricultural intensification" and "increased use and exploitation of wildlife" as 2 of the 7 factors driving the emergence of zoonotic diseases; and
• Numerous surveys and public opinion polls have found that an overwhelming majority of Canadians oppose killing animals for their fur.