PETA to Gov. Brown: ‘Ban Fur Farm Pandemic Hotspots!’

For Immediate Release:
April 26, 2021

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

After hundreds of Oregon-based PETA supporters urged Gov. Kate Brown to halt fur production statewide, PETA has now placed a billboard near her office that points out the pandemic risk associated with filthy fur farms and calls on her to ban them. Captive minks on fur farms in the state have already tested positive for COVID-19, including one who was found outside after escaping captivity.

“Fur factory farms are packed with stressed animals who can spread viruses that mutate, possibly rendering vaccines ineffective,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Gov. Brown needs to address a potential public-health emergency by shutting down these petri dishes for pandemics.”

COVID-19 has spread like wildfire on mink fur factory farms all over the world. At least six countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, and the U.S.) and the Faroe Islands have reported mink-related SARS-CoV-2 mutant strains in humans. Because of the pandemic risk, mink farming is being phased out in France and the Netherlands, and Poland has voted to ban fur factory farms.

PETA also points out that fur farms are breeding grounds for suffering: Minks frantically spin in circles inside small wire cages, and many of them suffer from broken or malformed legs as well as from other injuries and diseases. Some animals self-mutilate as a result of the intensive confinement, gnawing on their own legs or tails. At the end of their miserable lives, they’re gassed or electrocuted or their necks are broken.

The ad is located at 2605 Hawthorne Ave. N.E.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.