Municipal veterinarians have examined 15 of the 29 fur farms that were put on a check list after the Oikeutta Eläimille (“Justice for Animals”) organisation made public some secretly filmed material regarding the farms a week and a half ago.
The filmed footage was also shown on the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE’s current affairs programme A-Studio.
In the performed check-ups, defects were discovered on three of the farms. Two of the deficient farms are in the Vaasa region in the west of Finland and one is located further north near the city of Oulu.
There were broken resting shelves in certain fox cages, and in some cases the cages were totally void of any shelves. Some of the foxes did not have any chewing sticks. According to law, the resting shelves and chewing sticks are mandatory.
On one of the farms, deficiencies were detected with regard to bookkeeping of the tending of the animals. The fur farmers have been ordered to rectify the observed faults.
Animals that would have had to be put down because of an illness or injury were not discovered.
Headof UnitJaana Mikkola of the Finnish Food Safety Authority EVIRA describes the results of the inspections as “predictable”.
The footage by the activists was filmed in the autumn, after which the foxes and minks have been skinned and the sick animals have been put down.
The Justice for Animals organisation provided the authorities with a list containing 29 fur farms that according to the organisation were in violation of the law on protection of animals. The remaining farms will be inspected by the authorities during this week.
According to Mikkola, the farms where deficiencies were discovered will be reported to the police.
On Friday, animal rights activists organised demonstrations against Finland’s fur farming business in front of the Finnish embassies of various countries.
Ninety per cent of Finland’s fur farms are situated in the Ostrobothnia region in Western Finland.
Each year around two million foxes and two million minks are bred on the farms. Around 150,000 racoon dogs are also reared on the farms annually.
