Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about the fur trade and the import of fur.
I am committed to upholding this country’s high standards in animal welfare. The previous Conservative Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare sets out our party's vision to introduce a range of world-leading reforms to improve the welfare and conservation of animals at home and abroad, you can read more about it here - Action Plan for Animal Welfare (publishing.service.gov.uk)
I appreciate that there is considerable support for banning all imports of fur products. Fur farming has been banned in the UK for 20 years and legislation prohibits the keeping and breeding of animals solely or primarily for slaughter for the value of their fur. There are also strict restrictions on some skin and fur products that may never be legally imported into the UK. Those include fur and fur products from cats and dogs, whose import, export and placing on the market is prohibited.
Fur farming has been banned in the UK for 20 years. As well as this, there are already restrictions on some skin and fur products which may never be legally imported into the UK such as seal, cat and dog fur. The UK has established controls on fur from endangered species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and does not allow imports of fur from wild animals caught using methods which are non-compliant with international humane trapping standards.
In 2021, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published a call for evidence on the fur trade in Great Britain, which asked for views on animal welfare and on the social and economic impacts associated with the trade. Around 30,000 responses were received from businesses, representative bodies and individuals, demonstrating the strong public interest in this area. Although the call for evidence has now closed, the details are available here: The Fur Market in Great Britain - Defra - Citizen Space
I know that officials from Defra have been analysing the responses received and have also engaged directly with stakeholders. I look forward to the Government publishing more information about this in due course. In addition, Defra continues to build its evidence base on the fur sector, which will be used to inform any future action on the fur trade.
Finally, the Animal Welfare Committee has been considering the issue of responsible sourcing in the fur industry, including the animal welfare standards and safeguards that apply to fur imported into this country.
I understand that, in July 2023, the highly pathogenic avian influenza was detected in fur farms in Finland. This was the second known outbreak of this virus in Europe in fur farms, following one in Spain in 2022.
As fur farming is still legal in some EU countries, where outbreaks of avian influenza virus or SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) have occurred in fur farms in Europe in recent years, the governments in those countries have taken action to cull the affected farms to mitigate the risk of spread.
I understand that the UK has established systems which include international disease monitoring programmes, such as the Animal and Plant Health Agency and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to monitor the situation; the outcomes of which are reviewed through the Veterinary Risk Group and the Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance (HAIRS) group. The HAIRS group published a risk assessment on the transmission of avian-origin influenza from animals to humans and the risk that SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK captive or wild Mustelidae populations presents to the UK human population. It noted that there was no direct exposure to infected fur farms for kept or wild mammals in the UK and there was no evidence to suggest an increased risk to wildlife.
I hope that this Government works closely with the UKHSA and its international partners to keep under surveillance any transmission of zoonotic pathogens and the possible risk to human and animal health.
Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me.
Sincerely,
