Survey: 62 % of Finns do not approve of killing animals for their fur

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Survey: 62 % of Finns do not approve of killing animals for their fur

21 January 2021
Animalia
News
According to a survey by the polling company Taloustutkimus, 62 % of Finns do not approve of killing animals for their fur.

The figure has increased by two percentage points from 2019. The figures show a growing opposition to, and disapproval of, the fur industry in Finland. 

 

Opposition to fur farming has emerged also in other surveys published this Autumn. According to surveys commissioned by NGOs Animalia and Oikeutta eläimille, 76 % of Finns do not accept subsidies to fur farming. 73 % want to either ban farming altogether or think that the law should require considerably more space for the animals and offer better opportunities for the animals’ species-specific behavioural needs.

There has also been a tightening of attitudes towards fur farming in the Finnish Parliament. In August, the Social Democratic Party, which is the party of the Prime Minister, adopted an anti-fur position. The National Coalition Party, currently in the opposition, now calls on the decree on the protection of fur animals to be revised to meet “standards of a civilized state”.

 In Finland, the fur industry has received more than five million euros in subsidies during 2020 and no new restrictions on fur farming are in sight. In 2021, a new animal welfare law as well as a new decree on the protection of fur animals are to be decided on. It is possible to set new restrictions on fur farming through these legislative processes. Fur farming could be prohibited in the animal welfare law, and new restrictions on fur farming could be set in the decree on the protection of fur animals.

 

Animalia advocates for a ban on fur farming after a phase-out period.