I traveled with my Politics and Ethics of Food class on a field study to Kopenhagen Fur this past Wednesday, April 3. Kopenhagen Fur is the world’s largest fur auction house, and it is owned by the Danish mink breeders. They hold 5 auctions a year, and offer almost 30 million mink skins as well as fox, Swakara, chinchilla, and seal skins. Kopenhagen Fur holds 60% of the fur market share, and they generated $28,000,000 in sales of mink pelts in 2017. They generally produce 13,000 skins a year. In 2016, the average price of one of their furs was $32.29. Kopenhagen Fur’s products represent the 3rd largest Danish agricultural export (with many Chinese buyers). We met with Lars Skjoldegaard, the head of Business Policy Affairs, to learn more about the company.
Although fur is not food, our instructor decided we would visit Kopenhagen Fur in order to challenge our views and consider the balance/tension between animal welfare and economic development. There is a lot of consumer pushback against luxury fur products, and many NGOs and various activist organizations have criticized Kopenhagen Fur and the fur industry overall. Nevertheless, Kopenhagen Fur seems to be trying to stand out as a better or best player in the fur industry. Since the fur industry faces so much criticism, Kopenhagen Fur takes an approach of being much more open and transparent about their activities. They hope that open, honest conversation and bringing awareness to their activities will convince more of the public to accept their business. Taking this to the extreme, Kopenhagen Fur controversially even published an image of a sick mink animal in order to explain what they believe they’re doing well even though their production isn’t 100% perfect.
In terms of taking care of the mink, each animal is checked by a veterinarian at least 4 times a year. Out of their entire production, 11% of their facilities have received “marks” or issues with police due to noncompliance or regulatory problems. Lars was quick to explain to us that this is the lowest percentage in the fur industry (lower than all of Kopenhagen Fur’s competitors). In addition, by 2020 all of the production facilities will be WelFur certified. This certification process is supposed to ensure that there is good feeding, housing, health, and opportunities for the animals to display appropriate behavior. Lars explained that Kopenhagen Fur partnered with Aarhus University in order to establish science-based (as opposed to emotion-based) standards for animal welfare in their fur production.
From a sustainability viewpoint, Lars explained that Kopenhagen Fur utilizes waste by-products from the fish and meat industries for feed for the mink.
Lars proceeded to give our class a tour of the production and sorting facility. As soon as we walked into the production area, the SMELL hit us very hard. Words cannot do justice to describing the very sickening smell of the thousands upon thousands of dead mink pelts. Our class was struck by the contrast between 1) the horrific smell with 2) the upbeat motivational music (including Lady Gaga) for the workers and fine art hanging on the walls. Walking through the production facility was certainly an incredibly strange experience. We ended our tour by checking out Kopenhagen Fur auction room.
My overall impression from the field study is that I have mixed feelings towards fur production. I appreciate the attempts Kopenhagen Fur has made towards transparency and greater animal welfare. I also understand the economic value of fur production for the Danish economy. Still, I cannot deny my negative visceral response to the smell while walking through the production facility and seeing thousands and thousands of dead mink pelts. It left quite a scarring impression on me. Then again, perhaps my response is too emotional and insensitive to the economic needs of the local population. I appreciate the experience to visit Kopenhagen Fur and see their production facility because it was an interesting experience, and it did give me a lot to think about and consider.
Danny in Denmark 