Responsible Fur Blog: Fur Farming • We Are Fur

Furcyle Label, Pre-owned Fur

November 16, 2023

The ‘Furcycle’ label authenticates pre-loved fur, as second-hand luxury market and conscious consumption soars. A new label to support the use of vintage and pre-loved fur has been launched by the International Fur Federation (IFF). The label called ‘Furcycle’ comes a year after ‘Furmark’ had been launched for all new fur items. As more consumers seek sustainable alternatives, the market for vintage and pre-owned luxury items, including fur, has experienced a renaissance. Driven by sustainable consumerism, the desire for exclusivity and rarity, and the timeless...

Finnish Fur Press Release – Coronavirus Vaccine

January 13, 2021

Finnish Fur Breeders’ Association – FIFUR 12.1.2021 Press release The fur industry is developing a corona vaccine for mink and Finnraccoon with a research group at the University of Helsinki The Finnish Fur Breeders' Association FIFUR and researchers at the University of Helsinki are developing a corona vaccine for mink and Finnraccoon. The goal is to have a vaccine that protects farm animals against covid-19 as soon as possible for widespread use and distribution. "The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the Covid-19 disease, is not just...

Statement on the culling of all mink farms in Denmark from FUR EUROPE

November 9, 2020

The government in Denmark has made a decision they did not want to, but public safety must come first. Now the Danish authorities must release their research for scrutiny amongst international scientists. The Danish mink production is allowed to continue in the future, but no decisions have yet been made by the mink farmers, who are still in shock over seeing their livelihood being taken away from them. The culling decisions in Denmark and the Netherlands rest on many farms being located close together, and...

IFF Launches Sustainability Strategy – ‘Natural Fur’

February 17, 2020

The global fur industry has launched an ambitious programme and a clear direction of travel for the industry and wider supply chain around animal welfare, environmental protection and for the people and communities that work in the sector as part of its first sustainability strategy. The strategy was launched by the International Fur Federation (IFF), the global body for the fur sector, at an event to coincide with London Fashion Week at the Danish Embassy in London on 17th February. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE IFF,...

More GOOD4FUR Certified Farms Boosting Fur Farming

January 13, 2020

On January 6th, 2020, GOOD4FUR Certified Farm press meeting was held in China National Convention Center. GOOD4FUR certification, jointly initiated by China Leather Industry Association (CLIA, for short) and IFF in 2017, aimed to promote China’s fur farming into normalization, standardization and modernization and to build an excellent image. In the past three years, China's fur farmers has gradually reached a consensus on animal welfare with high standards. They have actively participated in GOOD4FUR certification so that farms with high-standard animal welfare boost fur farming...

IV FUR Futures Ukraine International Forum

October 7, 2019

Cooperation of Kyiv National University of Technology and Design with the Ukrainian Fur Association promotes success in the international market The IV International Forum, “FUR Futures Ukraine,” held at the Kyiv National University of Technology and Design is the annual event organised by the Ukrainian Association of furriers that gathers representatives of fur business, from manufacturers to designers, as well as students, profiled teachers, academics, all working together in cooperation. This year, the forum was attended by 100 people and was moderated by Alla Gosling - the executive director...

New study compares natural and fake fur biodegradability

June 27, 2018

Natural fur biodegrades rapidly even in landfill conditions without oxygen as opposed to fake fur which does not biodegrade at all, a new study shows. Experts from the Organic Waste Systems laboratory in Ghent, Belgium, examined how real and fake fur degrade in conditions set up to mimic closed landfill conditions, so-called anaerobic biodegradation. Commenting on the report’s findings Mark Oaten, CEO of the IFF said: “Fake fur has been promoted as the sustainable alternative to natural fur, but in reality, it is highly polluting....

China’s First Step to Push Out GOOD4FUR Certified Farm

March 23, 2018

Introduction: the first GOOD4FUR certification was launched in Beijing, China. It marks that fur economic animals farming enters a new era with standardisation, process, normalisation and modernisation. On January 16th, 2018, GOOD4FUR Certified Farm press meeting was held in China National Convention Center, jointly by China Leather Industry Association (CLIA, for short) and IFF. Five farms were awarded with honor of “GOOD4FUR Certified Farm”, namely Dalian Mingwei Marten Farm Co., Ltd, Huitai Mink Farm, Goldtime Farming (Harbin) Co., Ltd, Harbin Hualong Blue Fox Breeding Co.,...

Fur industry says “it’s time to call out the fake news about fake fur”

February 1, 2018

The international fur industry is launching a global campaign to highlight the colossal environmental damage caused by plastic based fake fur. Fake fur is often pushed by animal activist groups as the ethical alternative to real fur. But in a hard hitting campaign across all continents, the fur trade says, “It’s time to call out the fake news about fake fur”. The industry has produced a video which shows the destructive nature of fake fur and is being circulated worldwide, in China, Japan, Taiwan,...

China promoting high standards in their Dressers and Dyers

September 6, 2017

The China Fur Commission of the China Leather Industry Association (CLIA) has since 2016 been running and promoting a program to improve the practices of fur dressers operating in China and reward those that are at a high level. Fur dressing happens across many countries from Canada to Cambodia, but the largest concentration of fur dressing and dyeing operations is in China along with the biggest retail market, so getting dressing right in China is a massive goal for the industry. The program has the...

Fur Explainer: Possum & Opossum

August 15, 2017

“Possum.” The word and what people mean when they say it has led to a growing confusion in recent years as it has increasingly been mistakenly applied to separate species. By and large there are two different animals people refer to when they use the word. The animal found in Australia and New Zealand which is truly a “possum” is often known as the “Brush-Tailed Possum.” The North American species that is often misnamed is in fact a separate animal entirely called an “opossum,” and...

IFF & Kopenhagen Fur Visit Dressers & Dyers in Asia

August 4, 2017

With sustainability and the demonstration of improving standards both increasingly a focus for the fur industry, it is more important than ever that those driving the agenda have a broad understanding of all levels of the value chain. It was in this context that representatives from IFF and Kopenhagen Fur spent a week this Summer visiting dressers and dyers across Cambodia, Vietnam & China. The delegation included, from Kopenhagen Fur Mr Jesper Uggerhøj (CEO), Mr Soren Valentin (COO) and Mr Thomas Andersen (Head of Dressing)...

Wild Fur Conference in Irkutsk, Russia

July 13, 2017

On the 22nd June 2017 an event was held in Irkutsk Russia entitled “Fur Harvesting in the 21st Century, Russia and the World.” The event was held as a part of the Russian “Year of Ecology” and was organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation with the support of the Russian Fur Union, the auction company “Sojuzpushnina” and the International Fur Federation (IFF). The event had been organised in order to pull together a mix of international and Russian...

WelFur: the bridge between responsible farming and fashion

June 19, 2017

Several months after the implementation of the science-based certification programme WelFur started, already 450 mink and fox farms had the first ever WelFur assessment visit. The number is hardly a surprise as 77 % of fur breeders in Europe rushed to sign for at last one visit in 2017 as soon as the implementation was announced. Farmer’s openness to the idea of a certification programme measuring and documenting animal welfare on fur farms is significant. European breeders know that animal welfare on farms is central...

Anti-Sealing Smear Campaigns Do More Harm Than Good

December 22, 2016

by FELICITY ROBERTS originally posted on The Overcast - Newfloundland's Alternative Newspaper on December 22, 2016 Seals have been politicised for decades now. No matter where you stand on the hunt, there’s no debating the fact that the high profile campaigns of the 70s and 80s, by for-profit groups like Greenpeace and the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare), did very serious damage to the industry, and with it, the families and communities that depend on it. It was during those times, with the United...

Welfur Initiative Gets BBC Coverage

October 20, 2016

WelFur is a new scheme developed to ensure animal welfare is a priority before fur pelts reach the auction houses. The program is entirely voluntary, although the auction houses will not sell furs that are not WelFur certified from 2020 onward. The scientist Jens Malmkvist from Aarhus University in Denmark is one of the scientists developing the new standards in fur farming. The scientists and veterinarians involved in the process are non-biased and unpaid from the fur farms. They are sponsored through the governments. "It...

CLIA Announce Updated Standards for Fur-Bearing Animals

October 6, 2016

On the 27th of June 2016, the China Fur Commission of the China Leather Industry Association (otherwise known as CLIA, an IFF member) held a press conference in Beijing to announce the updated standards for farming of fur-bearing animals. There was some media in attendance but further to this, the related press release was distributed to 23 major news portals (e.g. China Daily, Xinhua etc.).The original press release can be seen here in Chinese (HTTP://WWW.CHINALEATHER.ORG/NEWS/20160627/288754.SHTML). The original guidelines were released in 2005 and the updated...

Gordy Klassen Fur Trapper

April 2, 2014

Earlier this month, the Edmonton Journal released an article featuring Alberta trapper and Fur Institute of Canada (FIC) Board Member Gordy Klassen. The piece is a profile on Gordy, who shares his love of trapping and the Canadian wilderness. Gordy came from a family of hunters, but was always interested in trapping and started to save the money for his own traps at just 10 years old. He gathered knowledge from other local trappers and his father, who did a small amount of weasel trapping...