Ágúst Ólafur Ágústsson, Member of Parliament for the Social Democrats, wants the government to allow mink fur farmers to quit with a grant, according to a report by RÚV.
Ágúst said in Parliament on Friday that the breeding of mink for their fur was an act of animal cruelty that should have stayed firmly in the past. News of a mutated variation of COVID-19 in mink in Denmark is also a great concern, and a clear indicator that this practice should end.
”I therefore propose that the government enables the few remaining fur farmers to cease their activities with funding,” he said. “Norway will ban fur farming from 2025 and many other European counties have already banned it.”
Samples are to be carried out on Icelandic mink farms over the coming weeks, after the news from Denmark that all mink on their farms would be culled due to a mutated variation of the virus. COVID-19 has since been found on nine farms in Sweden.
In Iceland, mink farming has been the subject of criticism for many years now. Further, it has not even been profitable, and has been held afloat by government grants in recent years.
“I think environmental issues are not only about rocks and mud, but also about animals, and that has certainly been lacking in this country,” he aadded. “Let us stop fur farming in Iceland. Fur is not a necessity.”
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