European Citizens’ Initiative against fur off to a flying start - sign as well!
About fifty thousand people signed the recently launched European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Europe Fur Free’ on its first day. MEP Anja Hazekamp of the Dutch Party for the Animals opened the citizens’ initiative in Amsterdam, together with the initiators Bont voor Dieren (Fur For Animals), Four Paws, World Animal Protection and Dier & Recht (Animals & Justice). The goal of the citizens’ initiative is a ban on the production and import of fur in all of Europe - and every EU citizen can contribute to this by supporting the initiative.
MEP Anja Hazekamp of the Dutch Party for the Animals during the launch of the citizens’ initiative in Amsterdam.
MEP Anja Hazekamp calls on everyone to sign the citizens’ initiative: “Breeding and killing animals for their fur is cruel. Animals are kept in small cages and killed horribly on a massive scale, just for their pelts. Now is the time to act! Together, we can ensure that no more animals have to suffer for this horrible product. Together, we can ensure that Europe becomes fur free!”
Fur, as the initiators and their international partners point out, is a luxury product accompanied by incomprehensible animal suffering, poor working environments, and large-scale environmental damage. Fur farms also turned out to be breeding grounds for emerging new COVID-19 variants, being one of the chains of the virus making the jump from animals to humans.
Stop the cruel, sickening and polluting fur industry
More and more countries have recently ended their fur industries. Thanks to the Dutch Party for the Animals, a ban on Dutch mink farms - one of the largest mink industries in the world - was adopted. As of now, fur industries in Croatia, Slovenia, North-Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Estonia, Slovakia, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czechia, Ireland, and Italy have been banned.
Still, about 100 million animals are killed each year around the world for their pelts. Not just mink, but foxes, rabbits, raccoon dogs, cats and dogs as well. A European ban on the import of dog and cat fur has been in force since 2009. However, the pelts of other animals bred and killed in China or elsewhere can still be imported and sold. That makes the European Union one of the most important fur markets worldwide. Within the EU, the production of fur has not yet been outlawed everywhere either.
The citizens’ initiative ‘Europe Fur Free’ can end this. If at least 1 million citizens from seven different EU countries sign the initiative within a year, it becomes an official citizens’ proposal that requires the European Commission to respond within 6 months. If enough signatures are collected, an official hearing will be held in the European Parliament as well, where the initiators can elaborate on their demands. As of now, the petition stands at over 125,000 signatures - sign as well!