Fur Trade

Risky Business: The Dangers of Zoonotic Disease in the Fur Trade (2024)

This report explores the diseases that can be transferred between animals and people in the fur farming industry that pose immediate threats to human public health and safety. Our research highlights the magnitude of the threat this industry presents in the United States using global data from past zoonotic disease outbreaks that originated from animal sources, including SARS and Ebola. This work illuminates the consequences the fur farming industry will inevitably have on future human public health, wildlife conservation, and biological diversity if allowed to continue unchecked.

These public health concerns surrounding fur farming are compounded by the squalid and overcrowded way these wild animals are kept in the hundreds, sometimes thousands, in tiny cages on factory-style farms. These conditions cause increased instances of chronic disease, injuries, infections, poor immune system function, toxic waste pollution, and virus spread. The spread of COVID-19 on fur farms beginning in 2020, and the transfer of these variants to humans and other wildlife, demonstrate the potential to host the origin of the next pandemic. In 2024, leading virologists’ biggest concern is the susceptibility of farmed minks to COVID-19 and avian influenza A (H5N1).

No efforts to increase monitoring or change in fur farming regulations would be effective in addressing the industry’s numerous and inherent problems. Born Free USA, non-profit partners, and expert virologists are calling for fur farming to be abolished in the U.S. to protect public health and safety.

We urge our supporters to call on their federal lawmakers to support the Mink VIRUS Act – a bill that would ban mink farming across the U.S. – before the next pandemic outbreak.