Writing the final chapter of fur farming in Italy

ARTICLE

Writing the final chapter of fur farming in Italy

In December 2021 the Italian Parliament voted to end fur farming in Italy, introducing a ban from January 1, 2022. This decision came after two consecutive ministerial orders which suspended fur farming operations from November 2020 to December 2021 due to public health concerns for the spread and spill over of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on mink farms across Europe, with such cases confirmed on two Italian farms. The long-awaited ban was swiftly obtained with an amendment to Law nr. 234/20211, i.e., the Budget Law – a legal text perhaps less commonly associated with legislative animal protection and with the obtainment of substantive (animal) law.

The favourable vote followed discussions with the Italian office of animal protection organisation Humane Society International/ Europe which, with its report Mink breeding in Italy: Mapping and future perspectives2, presented a complete assessment of the fur farming industry in Italy and its – exiguous – contribution to the Italian economy.

Mink farming in Italy prior to the ban

While ethical, environmental, and public health concerns had long informed public and political discussion around ending fur farming in Italy, they had not been decisive. At a time when COVID-19 measures were particularly impactful on many commercial sectors, leading the Government to launch state aid schemes, this presented a good opportunity to assess the economic viability of an industry which was already in decline prior to the pandemic, and suspended during it without any compensation. It was, we argued, the logical moment to examine the compelling economic case, strengthening all previous arguments, for the permanent closure of mink farms in Italy.

Prior to the fur farming ban, in Italy there were only ten active mink farms left in the country, five of which no longer housed animals due to COVID-19. They were small agricultural enterprises, with a total of fourteen workers, employed on a part-time or full-time basis. Most carried out at least one other activity besides mink farming to supplement income; in some cases, mink farming was not the primary activity.

Available data on the market for mink fur showed that the sector was and still is in worldwide crisis and Italy is no exception. While in the early 1990s, the fur industry had been flourishing in Italy, with 125 mink, fox, and chinchilla fur farms and hundreds of thousands of animals killed annually, the situation has changed. In September 2021, the average price of mink fur exchanged at the Kopenhagen Fur Auction – the most important fur auction in Europe – was less than 30.- Euros per skin. In Italy, the fur market is characterized by small levels of raw skin production and by the primacy of manufacturing. Italian mink farmers’ revenue, considering fur prices, was estimated between 550.000,- and 800.000,- Euros. Even assuming this revenue contributed entirely to the export value of the Italian supply chain specific for that sector, it would amount to a percentage close to 0.15%.3

The Italian fur farming ban

Italy was the sixteenth of now nineteen European countries to introduce a ban on fur farming. As of January 1, 2022, it is prohibited to breed, farm, capture, and kill minks, foxes, raccoon dogs, chinchillas, and animals of any species for the purpose of obtaining fur (Law nr. 234/2021, art. 1, para. 980). By way of derogation and without prejudice to the general ban, the ten remaining mink farms were allowed to keep the approximately 5.000 breeding minks4 already present in the facilities until June 30, 2022 (para. 981), i.e., the time deemed necessary to dismantle the farms.

Moreover, for each of the years 2022 and 2023, a fund of three million euros per year was established at the Ministry of Agriculture to compensate fur farms which, at the date of entry into force of the Budget Law, still had an operative activity code, even if they were not keeping animals (para. 982).

The criteria and the modalities to access compensation were to be laid out by a decree of the Minister of Agriculture, in agreement with the Minister of Health and the Minister for Ecological Transition, and after consulting the Regions and Autonomous Provinces5, within 30 days from the date of entry into force of the Budget Law (para. 983). The same decree was to regulate the possible transfer of the animals and their keeping, duly sterilised and in compliance with the ministerial measures for the prevention of zoonotic diseases, to authorised facilities, giving preference to those managed directly or in collaboration with recognised animal welfare associations (para. 984).

Using the budgetary framework to enact substantive animal law

The Budget Law authorises the Government to allocate public resources necessary for the implementation of public policies and administrative activities of the State and is the main accounting document bearing on the financial resources of the State. Its central concern is public spending, not animal protection, and finding a way to link these two politically and legislatively separate realms was crucial to a legally viable proposal.

In the Italian context at the time, a plausible way to obtain the sought-after legislative change for fur-bearing animals via public spending was to award State-funded compensation (and initially also privileged access to other public funds allocated for ecological transition projects, an idea which was immediately discarded by the legislator due to its potential for discriminatory precedence), following the governmental shut-down of fur farming operations, on the basis of the entry into force of said ban. Unlike other commercial sectors and businesses, fur farms were not receiving any state aid due to COVID-19 lockdowns.

Compared to the ordinary law-making process, which is lengthy and relies heavily on the level of priority which the Head of the designated parliamentary Commission assigns to a given bill, the legislative approval of the Budget Law takes place over a month and a half, from mid-November to the end of December. The process is initiated, on a yearly alternating basis, by one of the two parliamentary chambers: in 2021 by the Senate. Although speedy, the process of getting an amendment to the vote is not an easy matter. Hundreds, even thousands of amendments are brought to the Budget Law which in the short time frame cannot all be discussed. Therefore, parties, prompted by their Members of Parliament sponsoring a given amendment, must select the ones they deem priorities; all others will be dropped.

Humane Society International/Europe’s fur farm closure proposal and report was strongly endorsed by Italian Member of Parliament the Hon. Michela Vittoria Brambilla – also President of the Parliamentary Intergroup for Animal Rights –, who launched the political action, and Sen. Loredana De Petris who formally submitted the amendment, both leading to its passing in the commission readings and plenary sessions.

Enacting the pending ministerial decree

Despite the 30-day deadline as per art. 1 para. 983, Law nr. 234/2021 and with farms now shut down, the ministerial decree outlining “compensation criteria and disbursement methods to fur farmers and the transfer and keeping of the animals” to sanctuary facilities, has not been issued yet. The draft was drawn up by the Minister of Agriculture over six months after the deadline set at January 31, 2022. In October 2022, the Regions were convened to express their non-binding opinion 6 on the Minister’s draft Decree. It is regrettable to note that the Minister of Agriculture did not complete the work by the deadline.

Notwithstanding, the entry into force of a fur farming ban in Italy is an historic victory for animal protection organisations in the country and a milestone in the advancement of the legal protection of animals. Humane Society International/Europe’s report and strategy played a central role in dismantling this industry in Italy and obtaining an important piece of substantive legislation. There are very clear economic, environmental, public health, and of course ethical reasons to close and ban fur farms globally. Among other things, Italy’s favourable vote recognises that allowing the mass breeding and killing of wild species for frivolous fur fashion can’t be justified by the limited economic benefits it offers to a small minority of people involved in this business. 

Martina Pluda

Martina Pluda

Director for Italy of Humane Society International/Europe

1. Legge 30 dicembre 2021, n. 234, Bilancio di previsione dello Stato per l'anno finanziario 2022 e bilancio pluriennale per il triennio 2022-2024, GU Serie Generale n.310 del 31-12-2021Supplemento Ordinario n. 49, https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/ eli/id/2021/12/31/21G00256/sgL.

2. Studio COME, Humane Society International/Europe L’ALLEVAMENTO DI VISONI IN ITALIA: Mappatura e prospettive future (2021), https://www.hsi-europe.org/ wp-content/uploads/2021/11/HSIEurope_StudioCOME_ LALLEVAMENTO-DI-VISONI-IN-ITALIA-Mappatura-eprospettive-future.pdf.

3. Studio COME, Humane Society International/Europe L’ALLEVAMENTO DI VISONI IN ITALIA: Mappatura e prospettive future (2021), pg. 14, https://www.hsi-europe. org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/HSIEurope_StudioCOME_ LALLEVAMENTO-DI-VISONI-IN-ITALIA-Mappatura-eprospettive-future.pdf.

4. These numbers were obtained via requests for access to documents of the relevant health authorities by animal protection organization LAV.

5. The twenty regions in Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the Italian Republic, constituting its second NUTS administrative level. Under the Italian Constitution, each region is an autonomous entity with defined powers. Except for two, each region is divided into several provinces.

6. Conferenza delle Regioni e delle Province Autonome, POSIZIONE SULLO SCHEMA DI DECRETO INTERMINISTERIALE RECANTE CRITERI E MODALITÀ DI CORRESPONSIONE DELL’INDENNIZZO A FAVORE DEI TITOLARI DEGLI ALLEVAMENTI DI VISONI, VOLPI, CANI PROCIONE, CINCILLÀ E DI ANIMALI DI QUALSIASI SPECIE PER LA FINALITÀ DI RICAVARNE PELLICCIA, NONCHÉ LA DISCIPLINA DELLE CESSIONI E DELLA DETENZIONE DEI SUDDETTI ANIMALI, 221195/SR09lC10, https://www. statoregioni.it/media/5300/p-9-csr-doc-regioni-12ott2022.pdf.