The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has issued a statement correcting “misleading” news reports in the Telegraph, Independent and Mail that the Government had dropped plans to consider banning imports of fur and foie gras. In its statement, DEFRA confirms: “Future legislation to ban the imports of fur and foie gras has not been “dropped” or “shelved”” but blames limited Parliamentary time for lack of progress.
In response to this development, #FurFreeBritain campaigners at animal charity Humane Society International/UK issue the following statement:
Claire Bass, Humane Society International/UK’s senior director of public affairs and campaigns, says: “We’re pleased to see Defra proactively refuting news reports that a fur import ban has been ditched. But actions speak louder than words. The Government’s Call for Evidence on the UK fur trade closed over eighteen months ago with 30,000 responses, but it is yet to publish the findings. Meanwhile, there is new alarming evidence from virologists that mink fur farms could easily be the gateway for avian flu to jump to humans, risking a future pandemic. In terms of priorities, helping to end the cruel and dangerous fur trade should be rapidly rising up the Government’s to-do list.”
The Department statement reconfirms that the Government is continuing to gather an evidence base on steps that could be taken on both fur and foie gras, and references its Call for Evidence on the fur sector which took place more than a year ago with some 30,000 responses, the findings from which HSI/UK notes are still yet to be published.
Fur facts
The UK banned fur farming on ethical grounds in 2003, but two decades on is still complicit in fur cruelty due to imports and sale of fur from countries overseas including China and Finland. HSI/UK’s #FurFreeBritain campaign is calling for an end to that double standard.
There is strong public backing for a UK fur sales ban, with over 1.1 million signatures collected to date.
An April 2022 poll shows 77% of British voters think the UK Government should ban the importation of animal products such as fur, where production methods are already banned in the country.
Virologists at Imperial College, London, recently described outbreaks of H5N1 (Avian Flu) on mink farms in Spain as “incredibly concerning” and “a clear mechanism for an H5 pandemic to start.”
