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October 22, 2024
May 18, 2022
Unique opportunity to ban animal fur farming across the European Union! European Citizens' Initiative Fur Free Europe is launched
Starting today, 18 May 2022, the most important collection of signatures for a civic project aiming to ban the keeping and killing of animals for fur production and the marketing in the EU of fur from animals raised on farms and products containing such fur is launching across the European Union. In practice, this would mean that fur farms would be legally banned from operating across the European Union.
What can you do?
Be sure to sign the petition expressing your support for this initiative. You can do this if you are at least 18 years old (16 years old in Austria) and a citizen of a European Union country. For your signature to be valid, you must provide all the information requested on the website. The scope of the data to be collected derives from the EU provisions governing the procedure for conducting European Citizens' Initiatives and is necessary in order to verify the reliability of the signature.
What do you need to know about the initiative?
The European Citizens' Initiative allows citizens of the European Union to propose new EU legislation by addressing proposals to the European Commission, which is obliged to comment on the draft and propose related changes to the law. For this to happen, at least 1 million EU citizens from at least 7 EU member states must sign the initiative by May 2023.
The author of the initiative is Eurogroup For Animals, which brings together pro-animal organisations from across the European Union. The organisers stress that fur farming goes against the basic concept of animal welfare. Animals raised on fur farms cannot satisfy their behavioural needs. Furthermore, fur farms pose a risk to animal and human health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, coronavirus outbreaks were detected on hundreds of mink farms, and new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were transmitted to humans. Fur farming has a significant impact on the environment and poses a serious threat to native biodiversity, as the animals most commonly reared for their fur, such as American mink do not occur naturally in Europe. Moreover, pollution from farms has a devastating effect on the quality of the soil, water and air around it.
According to Eurogroup For Animals, now is the best time to introduce a ban. The fur industry is in deep crisis due to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and the lack of demand for fur, and an increasing number of EU countries are choosing to ban fur farms themselves and are calling on the EU institutions to explore the possibility of an EU-wide ban.
Show your support for ending the cruel industry of animal fur farming. Sign the petition and share it with friends across the European Union!
Together, we can make fur history!
Marta Korzeniak
Marta Korzeniak is our Activism and Communication Specialist in Otwarte Klatki. She is an active member of the media & PR team, taking care of writing and sending press releases, contact with journalists and interviews.
