Every year, millions of captive animals are gassed or electrocuted and then turned into multithousand-dollar fur coats. Though the industry has shrunk considerably in recent years, it poses a disproportionately large risk to human health. There’s a real chance that the next pandemic could be incubated within the cramped confines of a fur farm, and banning the cruel and senseless practice could be one of the most consequential public-health measures in decades.

Fur farms are hell. Like other “factory” farms, these facilities confine thousands of animals in close quarters, crammed into tiny wire cages. Often, the animals can barely move around, living out their sad, stationary lives atop a pool of their own waste. Some species, like red foxes, begin chewing the tails off of their young, or even killing them.

Others develop nervous tics. Chinchillas, for example, are known to tear out their own hair, a behavior so common in captivity that some people have explored mass administering the anti-depressant Prozac to the animals. A fur farm assessment completed at the request of the European Commission concluded that, in most cases, “neither prevention nor substantial mitigation of the identified [welfare consequences] is possible in the current system”.

Fur farms are inhumane, and also hazardous. Take mink, the most common captive species. They’re like viral sponges that can pick up respiratory pathogens from humans and other animals. When thousands of inbred mink are packed into crowded, stressful settings,........

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