World’s Biggest Fur Auction House Is Closing

As the fur industry continues to grapple with coronavirus outbreaks on fur farms around the world, a fur-free future feels closer than ever.

Mink at a fur farm in Ontario, Canada. Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / #MakeFurHistory

The world’s biggest fur auction house has announced its closure, as the wider fur industry continues to struggle with coronavirus spreading in workers and animals on fur farms around the globe. 

Kopenhagen Furs, which is regarded as the centrepiece of Denmark’s 1,500 fur farms, has “decided to gradually downsize the company and make a controlled shutdown over a period of 2-3 years”, the company announced on its website.

The news comes as Denmark earlier this month ordered a nationwide cull of its 17 million mink, after scientists discovered a mutation of the coronavirus found in the animals has passed to humans. 

Health authorities reported that the mutated virus found on Danish fur farms shows decreased sensitivity against antibodies, which could potentially affect the success of future vaccines. 

Within less than a month, Denmark has gone from the world’s largest fur producer - with over 1,500 fur farms holding around 17 millions animals - to virtually a complete shutdown of the entire industry. 

There’s “no way back” for the fur industry, Tage Pedersen, the chairman of the Danish Fur Breeders' Association, which owns Kopenhagen Fur, told Bloomberg. “Even if a few farmers somehow survive, there’s still no future.”

Animal advocates welcomed the news, with PETA denouncing Kopenhagen Fur as “a business built on the suffering of caged animals denied a life and then killed for their fur”.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for Humane Society International said that the closure “could very well signal the beginning of the end of the worldwide fur trade.”

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