Animal rights activists call for ban on fur farming in Czech Republic

Animal rights activists from OBRAZ are holding a week-long protest in front of the Agriculture Ministry where they have put up a large cage, "inhabited" day and night by some of its members. The aim is to draw attention to the plight of animals kept in highly questionable conditions on some 11 fur farms in the Czech Republic. For the activists, there is no middle ground: they argue that fur farming, in the 21st century, should be a thing of the past.

OBRAZ protest in front of the Agriculture Ministry, photo: CTK

A little earlier, I spoke to Marek Voršilka, chairman of the animal rights group.

“Conditions on Czech fur farms are similar to other such farms anywhere in the world. In the Czech Republic, the animals which are bred on farms are normally wild animals – foxes and mink. These are animals which normally run thousands of kilometres over the course of their lifetime. Yet, they are locked in tiny, bare wire cages where they haven’t even got a square metre to move. That results in immense frustration for the animals, behavior problems leading to madness, aggression, infections and cannibalism. And this is well-documented. These are animals which deserve to be in the wild, not locked in a tiny wire cage which can’t be any good for them.”

You have made public video footage which was provided to you anonymously by some people in the farms and the images truly are very disturbing. The animals’ lives appear very miserable indeed, including for the offspring, just miserable and short. At the same time, I would guess that there has been a shift in attitudes: some countries now have bans and consumers seem to be more aware of the situation or more conscientious…

Mink, photo: Marc Evans, Creative Commons 2.0

“I definitely think so. There has been a shift in the past few years. The first direct fur farming ban came in 1998, the UK followed in 2001, and we now have 10 countries which have a ban or indirect ban. In other countries there is a lot of discussion about the moral implications and the question 'Do we really need these fur accessories or decorative elements on winter coats'? There has definitely been a shift in public opinion: one poll by CVVM suggested in 2013 that 68 percent of Czechs were against the practice and favour a ban. So there has been a shift.”