Labour tables law to ban fur imports in the UK in huge win for Mirror campaign

Labour MP Ruth Jones plans to use her Private Members Bill so that UK legislation would "shut up shop on the cruel and unnecessary fur trade"

The Mirror's Fur Free Britain campaign to ban cruel imports into Britain moved a step closer after a bill to make it law will be introduced to Parliament tomorrow.

Labour MP Ruth Jones plans to use her Private Members Bill so that UK legislation would "shut up shop on the cruel and unnecessary fur trade". Humane Society International/UK (HSI/UK) who has been campaigning alongside the Mirror welcomed the tabling of this draft law as a significant step forward.

Tens of millions of animals suffer and die each year in the global fur trade. The majority of animals killed for fur are reared in barren battery cages on fur farms. HMRC records show that almost £40 million of fur (£39,703,694) was imported to the UK in 2023 from countries including China, Finland, Spain, Italy and France.

In addition to the physical and psychological torment of being confined in small, barren cages for their entire lives, the killing methods typically used on fur farms are equally distressing. Mink are killed by gassing, and fox and raccoon dogs are killed by anal electrocution.

Ruth Jones MP said: “Footage of terrified foxes on fur farms breaks my heart and I can't comprehend why anyone would inflict this kind of cruelty on an animal for a bit of frivolous fashion. I have heard about the issue from hundreds of my constituents and I am delighted to introduce this Bill to reflect their concerns. It is about time we shut up shop on this cruel and unnecessary trade and a fur import ban would send a powerful message to the rest of the world.”

The bill proposes to extend existing bans on trade in fur from cats, dogs and seals to include foxes, raccoon dogs, mink, chinchilla, coyotes and other animals killed for fur fashion, and prevent the import and sale of all animal fur. If passed into law, the ban would end the UK’s complicity in the cruelty of the global fur trade.

Fur farming has been illegal across the UK since the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Acts were brought into force in 2003 under a UK Labour Government. Despite this, importing fur into the UK and selling it here is still allowed. Fur Free Britain campaigners are calling on the government to strongly back the new bill and finally put an end to this double standard. Our campaign is supported by a host of celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Stella and Sir Paul McCartney, Leona Lewis OBE, Paloma Faith, Simon Pegg, Sue Perkins, Alesha Dixon, Kirsty Gallacher and Pete Wicks.

Claire Bass, HSI/UK senior campaigns and public affairs director said: “I’ve looked into the eyes of hundreds of animals on fur farms in Finland and these animals are broken souls, tormented their whole lives in tiny barren wire cages, often suffering agonising untreated wounds and deformities.

“We know that millions of British people are disgusted by the fact that these animals are suffering overseas to end up as a piece of fur trim sold here in the UK, so we are enormously grateful to Ruth Jones for introducing this extremely popular bill for a Fur Free Britain. We urge the Labour Government to back the ban.”

National polling carried out in April 2022 revealed that 77% of British citizens think the government should ban the importation of animal products such as fur, where the production methods are already banned in the UK. The Fur Free Britain campaign has also so far gathered over 1.2 million petition signatures in support.

In a study published in Nature last month, scientists studying animals farmed for their fur in China identified 39 viruses classed as “potentially high-risk” for transmission to humans, including 13 novel viruses and 11 zoonotic viruses which can be transmitted from animals to humans.

The paper’s authors warn that fur farms act as a hub for transmitting viruses. Top British virologists from Imperial College London’s Department of Infectious Disease have also warned that fur farms are a ticking time bomb for another pandemic and that farming mink for fur should be considered the same risk level as the bushmeat trade and live animal markets due to the threat it poses for the emergence of future disease outbreaks.