Ban on fur farms in Serbia now in place saving 12,000 chinchillas a year

After a 10-year phase out period, Serbia has now officially banned fur farming.

The 2009 Animal Welfare Act gave farmers a decade to get out of the fur business, and despite intense lobbying to delay or reverse the ban, as of January 2019 the industry is officially dead.

Serbia joins a growing number of places banning fur farming or sales, including Germany, Norway, Macedonia, Belgium and various cities in California.

More than a dozen nations have introduced bans and countries including Ireland, Lithuania, Denmark, Estonia and Poland are debating doing the same.

According to the Fur Free Alliance, chinchillas were the only animals kept for fur in Serbia.

“Each year, approximately 12,000 chinchillas were killed on Serbian fur farms by the end of the phase-out period,” the animal welfare group said in a statement.

“The intense battery cage system used on fur farms deprives chinchillas from the opportunity to express their natural behavior – such as running and jumping – and causes severe welfare problems,” according to Fur Free Alliance. Photo: Fur Free Alliance

Snezana Milovanovic, director of the Serbian animal protection organization Freedom for Animals, hailed the government’s commitment to the ban, saying:

“With the enforcement of the 2009 Animal Welfare Act, that makes it illegal to keep, reproduce, import, export and kill animals only for the production of fur, a great victory is finally achieved. Not only is this ban important for animals kept for fur production in Serbia, but also for the whole South East European region, and it signifies a major step forward for animal rights worldwide.”

Chinchillas are native to the Andes Mountains of northern Chile. Photo: Fur Free Alliance

Photo Fur Free Alliance

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