On this day in vegan history · November 23, 2000
Britain Bans Fur Farming Outright
Eleven mink farms were still running in England and Wales when Parliament decided that keeping an animal purely to skin it for a coat should simply be a crime.
The facts
- Royal assent
- 23 November 2000
- Fur farms still operating in the UK
- 11
- Mink skins produced annually
- Up to 100,000
- Came into force
- 1 January 2003, alongside Scottish and Northern Irish bans
The Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act 2000 received royal assent on 23 November 2000, making it an offence in England and Wales to keep animals solely or primarily for slaughter for their fur. At the time, eleven fur farms were still operating in the UK, producing up to 100,000 mink skins a year. The route to the law ran through Maria Eagle, the Labour MP whose earlier private member's bill to ban mink fur farming was defeated before the government took up the cause itself and carried it into law. A 1998 public consultation had already found overwhelming support for ending the practice. The ban did not bite immediately: it came into force on 1 January 2003, timed to take effect alongside parallel bans in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
An Act to prohibit the keeping of animals solely or primarily for slaughter for the value of their fur; to provide for the making of payments in respect of the related closure of certain businesses; and for connected purposes.
Long title of the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act 2000
Source: legislation.gov.uk -
Her proposed ban on mink fur farming was defeated as a Private member's bill but subsequently picked up by the government and enacted as the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act 2000.
Wikipedia, on Maria Eagle
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
England and Wales became one of the first places anywhere to ban fur farming outright rather than just regulate it, and the losing-bill-becomes-government-law path this took has repeated itself since as more countries have moved to close their own fur farms.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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