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Eastern Canada’s fur farming industry is showing signs of failure – unable to repay government loans, and with a massive decline in the number of producers, according to reports.
Prince Edward Island’s Silver Hill Fur Farm – which once housed over 80,000 mink set for slaughter – received a government loan of $4 million in 2014 to open a second location, but has been able to pay back less than $40,000 of said taxpayer money to date.
One Facebook user wrote: “As a tax paying Canadian I am outraged that my hard earned money goes to this slaughter of the innocent.”
Animal rights charity PETA has made videos about the brutality of fur farming
Reduced production
The financial situation is reflective of a significant decrease in demand – the province’s ‘production’ has declined from 180,000 to 45,000 mink per year.
The number of mink killed in Nova Scotia is also a fraction of what it was just a few years ago.
The province’s mink farms – which previously had an annual kill count of more than two million – will raise 500,000 mink this year.
Despite the reduction, manure runoff from existing mink farms has done damage to local waterways that may be irreparable.
Exposed
The decline of the industry in the Maritime provinces coincides with the Kitchener Ontario Animal Liberation Alliance’s [KOALA] undercover operation.
During the investigation, Malcolm Klimowicz gathered footage from five of the area’s farms which allegedly shows ‘torturous’ conditions for the animals.
He said: “There is no humane way to keep these animals captive without inflicting mental trauma and psychological damage.”
