Why one of the world’s top fur producers just banned fur farms
The world’s second-largest fur producer is saying goodbye to fur. On Tuesday, Poland passed a law to phase out fur farms over the next eight years — a major blow to the global fur industry.
In 2023, fur farmers in the Central European nation killed some three million foxes, minks, raccoon dogs, and chinchillas for coats and trim, accounting for about one out of every seven animals in the international fur trade.
The wild animals are confined in small wire-bottom cages for months — in facilities that resemble the kind of factory farms where animals are raised for meat — until they’re killed via carbon dioxide gassing or anal electrocution. Their pelts are then shipped around the world to clothing manufacturers and fashion houses.
A recent poll found that over two-thirds of Poles support a fur farm ban. “This is a decision that Poles have awaited for many years,” Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki said in a video posted on X. “A decision that reflects our compassion, our civilizational maturity, and our respect for all living creatures.”
Since the 1980s, animal activists around the world have campaigned against fur farming. Progress was slow going for decades but accelerated in the........





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Penny S. Tee
Gideon Levy
Mark Travers Ph.d
Gilles Touboul
John Nosta
Daniel Orenstein