Mink Fur Demand Dives, Copenhagen FW Fur-bids Exotic Skins

As the United States slinks away from mink, Denmark is also scaling back on exotic skins.

Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), released every five years as part of the U.S. Census, shows that fur production is “plummeting” in the United States. Data showed that 236 mink fur farms were found throughout the states in 2017, and just five years later, that number dropped just over 53 percent to 110 mink farms. With the speed of this decline, the Humane Society of the United States believes even more mink farms have closed in the last year, though there’s no data to prove it—yet.

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USDA insights also showed that the number of minks killed for their fur dropped from 3.3 million to 1.3 million—a 60 percent decline. Combined with the low prices that mink fur farmers are getting for the animal pelts, the value of the U.S. mink trade plummeted 68 percent from $123 million in 2017 to $39 million in 2022, per census data.

“The new numbers show an enormous drop in demand, meaning millions of minks are spared from suffering and death, all to produce poms on hats or fur-trim on gloves and shoes,” Kitty Block, president of the Humane Society of the United States and Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, wrote in a joint blog post. “This is thanks in no small part due to the growing awareness about the inherent cruelties and public health dangers of the fur industry.”

At the same time, Congress is making moves to phase out mink farming due to well-documented zoonotic-disease threats, as well as the “demonstrably inhumane” treatment of animals.

“Mink farms no longer produce raw garments for American consumers, exporting all pelts to shrinking foreign markets, mainly in China,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “This negligible foreign commerce is no longer worth the domestic risks, given that factory-farmed mink are potential super-spreaders of avian influenza, Covid-19, and other dangerous zoonotic diseases.”

Representatives Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) are upping the ante on the previously passed ban on U.S. Mink Farming—the Minks in Narrowly Kept Spaces Are Superspreaders (MINKS) Act. Introduced in March, the Mace-DeLauro MINKS Are Superspreaders Act would bar the possession, transportation and sale of minks raised in captivity for fur production.

“The MINKS are Superspreaders Act represents a crucial, bipartisan step toward preventing another disease outbreak, like Covid,” said Mace. “In addition, we have the chance to end the abusive and inhumane mink farming practice.”

The Mace-DeLauro bill trails behind the introduction of the Mink Facility Disease Prevention Act in the Illinois State Senate, sponsored by Senator Linda Holmes and endorsed by Born Free USA. And last June, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill seeking to phase out U.S. mink farms within one year of passage, as well as establish a grant program to reimburse mink farmers for the total value of their operations, Espaillat said in a statement.

“There is no safe way to operate a mink farm without creating a petri dish that could produce the next pandemic virus,” said Susan Millward, executive director of the Animal Welfare Institute. “Mink farms risk worsening the current pandemic and ushering in the next one, and we must listen to the scientists sounding the alarm on this,” she added. “It’s time to phase out this declining industry and provide farmers with the resources needed to transition to something safer and more sustainable.”

According to Animal Wellness Action, the “collapse” in demand for mink pelts is directly connected to the worldwide SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in farmed mink that has “paralleled” the Covid-19 pandemic, with outbreaks in at least 450 mink farms in over a dozen countries.

“We know beyond any doubt that mink farming poses a high risk for zoonotic diseases while contributing almost nothing to our economy,” said Tom Pool, senior veterinarian with Animal Wellness Action. “The risk-reward ratio for mink farming makes absolutely no sense.”

With mink fur and farming on the chopping block in the U.S., Denmark is also making moves away from exotic skins and animal products.

Copenhagen has become the biggest fashion week to ban such products beginning in 2025. The high-profile runway show will bar collections using exotic skins or feathers, as announced earlier this week in the first revision of its Sustainability Requirements (a prerequisite of admission criteria for brands to meet in order to make the cut).

“Since we first enforced the Sustainability Requirements on the show brands of Copenhagen Fashion Week back in 2023, it has been our ambition to annually amp up the requirements in order to keep pushing the brands and to continue setting the standard for fashion weeks globally,” Cecilie Thorsmark, Copenhagen Fashion Week’s CEO said in a statement. “Therefore, we are excited to launch the first edition of updated Sustainability Requirements. With the updates we are not only raising the bar for brands on our schedule, but we are also reflecting industry developments and learnings as well as the upcoming EU policy landscape.”

The amendment to the requirements includes three new minimum standards, raising the bar as many move from the commitment stage to the implementation stage. Thirty-one additional actions have been added “with a strong focus on social sustainability,” including the stipulation stating, “Our collection is free from virgin fur, wild animal skins and feathers, also referred to as exotics.”

The update comes one year after the Sustainability Requirements originally came into effect, and Copenhagen Fashion Week said it’s updated the framework to “continuously push the industry’s sustainability efforts” based not only on industry developments but also “close observations and mapping of EU policy landscape against the sustainability requirements framework.”

“From the very beginning, the aim of the framework has been to push the industry forward and create a common language that is relevant for fashion companies,” Frederik Larsen, co-founder of Copenhagen consultancy In Futurum, said. “With the revisions, Copenhagen Fashion Week continues this effort. As new regulations are introduced and focus on the industry is sharpened politically, the framework will help strengthen the focus not only on compliance but on continuously extending the scope of fashion and sustainability.”