Denmark which is the world’s leading country in the mink fur trade, has just announced the cull of around 17 million Mink on fur farms. This is after a mutated version of the coronavirus which can pass to humans has been detected on a Danish mink fur farm.

Mink are intelligent wild mammals and are globally one of the most persecuted species due to the demand for their fur which is used in ‘fashion’. The inhumane and cruel fur trade which still continues in many countries worldwide keeps animals in tiny cages with wire bottoms, hardly large enough to turn around in. Animals on fur farms are often so distressed that they are seen bleeding from the mouth where they have attempted to bite through their wire cage. Their lives are ended prematurely only to be skinned for their fur in the name of so-called ‘fashion’. These animal are sentient beings who feel pain, fear and depression. We cannot let this terrible trade continue, for both the sake of animal and human lives.

The Netherlands, having planned to gradually end the mink fur trade by 2024, have prematurely and permanently closed their fur farms when coronavirus was detected on mink farms in August. I am now urging the Danish government to do the same.

As a doctor myself, I have seen the direct impact of coronavirus on my patients. And as an animal rights activist I forced myself to tearfully watch the footage of these mink desperately trying to escape their fate. We cannot morally continue to allow fur farms to remain open when they are currently harbouring the virus, are likely to be a source of future pandemics and cause so much pain and suffering.

Please do not let this opportunity of a temporary closure of mink fur farms in Denmark go to waste. Do not let these 17 million beautiful animals die in vain. I am asking the Danish government to use this opportunity to bring conscience, ethics and moral duty into their decision making and permanently end the fur trade in Denmark. Please lead the way, for other countries to follow and do not continue to play a part in the persecution of these beautiful animals.