No exception to EU ban: Denmark stops mink farming

Copenhagen. If an EU-wide ban on mink farming comes into force next year, Denmark does not want to apply for an exemption. This means that the breeding of fur-bearing animals will end after a transition period of two years in 2029 at the latest. “An industry should not continue to exist simply because it has existed for a long time,” said the responsible minister for nature and animal welfare, Christian Rabjerg Madsen, according to a statement. “It also has to make sense for society, the economy and the animals.”

The government has decided in favor of animal protection - and therefore decided not to submit an application for an exemption, as the previous government had originally planned. The EU ban on keeping minks will come into force on August 7, 2027.

Denmark used to be one of the leading countries in mink farming - the acquisition has a long tradition in the country. During the corona pandemic, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced in November 2020 that all of the more than 15 million minks in the country should be killed out of concern that the virus would mutate.

As it later turned out, however, the government lacked the legal basis for the decision at the time. The owners had to be compensated expensively. This sparked a huge debate. In 2023, mink farming resumed on a much smaller scale. There are now only seven mink farms left in Denmark.