Norway Announces Ban on Fur Farming

Norway announced it will shut down all fur farms by 2025, leading us to believe that fur is officially going out of fashion. It’s a bold move for a country that was once was the world’s top producer of fox pelts and continues to produce 1 million pelts a year. Recently, Gucci and Michael Kors said they will no longer be using fur.

The decision to shut down fox and minx farms was a part of Conservative prime minister Erna Solberg’s aim to broaden his two-party minority government by adding the anti-fur Liberal Party.

Reuters is reporting there are about 200 fur farms in Norway. The decision was met with mixed response as animal activists rejoiced and fur producers were left dismayed.

“We’re shocked, shaken to the core,” said Guri Wormdahl of the Norwegian Fur Breeders Association. She said the strictly regulated fur industry employs about 400 people.

Animal rights group Noah was pleased with the decision to end fur farming, which the group views as a cruel and outdated business.

According to government reports, Fox farming peaked in Norway in 1939, just before World War Two, when the Nordic nation was the biggest world producer with almost 20,000 farms. It is now the first Nordic country to ban fur industries and the 14th European nation to phase out fur farming.