The Cologne Administrative Court has banned 132 pregnant cattle from being transported to Morocco on the grounds that the cattle there are often not slaughtered in accordance with animal welfare standards.

The 132 Holstein cows were pregnant and, according to the carrier, should go to a Moroccan dairy farm. The judges didn’t believe that, however.

According to the court order, the sales contract and the logbook show that the buyer was a slaughterhouse.

Berlin, November 24th, 2020:
PROVIEH welcomes the decision of the Cologne Administrative Court to ban the export of live animals to Morocco.

Before the Cologne Administrative Court decided in favor of the ban, the veterinary office had initially refused permission to transport the pregnant cattle to Morocco.

Two exporters had sued against this – and lost in an urgent procedure.

The transport planned for November 18, 2020, was not allowed to take place because the judges in Morocco feared that the animals would be slaughtered in a manner that was not appropriate to animal welfare.

“The decision of the Cologne Administrative Court evaluates PROVIEH as a success for animal welfare. There is a very high probability that the cattle in Morocco would have been slaughtered under conditions that were contrary to animal welfare, ” comments Patrick Müller, Head of Capital at PROVIEH.

“The decision was intended to encourage other veterinary offices not to process any transports that are expected to contain animal welfare violations en route or in the destination country.

We finally need nationwide uniform regulations for animal transports so that there are no more blatant misjudgments, such as the one from the Potsdam Administrative Court a few weeks ago, where the transport of pregnant cattle was permitted with reference to the EU regulation.

The European regulation for the protection of animals during transport must also be interpreted uniformly and completely in terms of animal welfare. “

Time and again, massive animal welfare violations occur in the case of live animal exports.

Problems arise from the fact that the animals are not regularly and insufficiently fed and supplied with water, even at high temperatures.

Supply breaks are not observed, appropriate supply stations, especially in third countries, are not approached or do not even exist. In the EU, the regulations are completely inadequate, but compliance with these minimum requirements is not even ensured in third countries.

The applicable law is repeatedly circumvented when live animal exports to third countries: The animals are often declared as breeding animals, although experts doubt that the animals are actually used for breeding.

Usually neither the climate is suitable, nor is there a suitable food base for the animals in the destination country.

The animals are “consumed” within a short time and are often slaughtered under dire conditions.

This has now also been recognized by the Cologne Administrative Court, at least in the case of a transport to Morocco.

For more…at https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2020/11/24/germany-transport-ban-of-132-pregnant-cattle-to-morocco/

 

And I mean…“The transport of certain animals is prohibited according to the EU directive and the related regulation (EC) No. 1/2005.

This applies to very young animals, for example, calves under ten days old, piglets under three weeks old, and lambs under a week, unless the distance is less than 100 kilometers

The EU regulation also prohibits the transport of pregnant animals in the last phase of pregnancy and for one week after birth. “

The larger the EU becomes, the greater the distances over which animals are traded.
For example, calves are sold to Spain from the age of 10 days. A trip that takes two to three days from Germany.

Although according to the EU statute it is forbidden to transport calves in long distances if they are less than 14 days old.

If the calves come from Eastern European countries, the journey time is correspondingly longer.

And there are other transport routes. Namely those to countries outside Europe.

What happens in slaughterhouses in third countries has been documented for years, how the animals are mistreated on the transports, and how cruel are the methods with which they are ultimately slaughtered.

Nevertheless, neither the corrupt German federal government nor the unsuitable European Commission does anything to prevent this unnecessary (and illegal) cruelty to animals.

As in many areas, the German government has totally failed in the area of ​​animal welfare. Why?
Because factory farming is wanted by the government and will continue to be subsidized with billions in taxpayers’ money.

Although the meat is cheap and almost every second pig ends up in the garbage, the large surplus of meat is exported abroad and the keeping conditions for the poor animals have hardly or not at all improved, new factory farms are being approved more and more.
This is totally sick.

But these are the excesses of damn capitalism. Money rules the world and the unscrupulous owners of the agricultural corporations who trample animal welfare can go on as they want.

We welcome the decision of the court, but the fate of animals during animal transport should be regulated by a uniform law and not be dependent on private decisions.

Because then we cannot talk about effective animal welfare, but only about nice judges.

My best regards to all, Venus

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EU / Romania: Live Export from Europe to Third Countries is Booming Despite Tragedies. – World Animals Voice

Live export from Europe to third countries is booming despite tragedies

23 November 2020

Animals International

Press Release

1 year after the live export vessel MV Queen Hind capsised killing thousands of sheep no one is held responsible. Eurogroup for Animals and Animals International, its member organisation in Romania, today remember the thousands of sheep who endured the most horrible death a year ago in the Romanian harbour of Midia.

For immediate release: Brussels, Bucharest 24 November 2020

The tragic anniversary is the opportunity to remind the lack of action by the Romanian Government and the EU Commission which led this barbaric trade to continue, with over 4 millions cattle, sheep and goats being shipped in despicable conditions to countries where animal welfare doesn’t meet the European standards.

Romania alone experienced a major raise in live animal exports since the Queen Hind capsised, with more than 2 million animals leaving the country by sea to reach North Africa and the Middle East, a journey that may take up to three weeks. 

While Romanian authorities insist that the density was 10% less than usual, the company hired to take the ship out of the water found secret decks with extra animals that were not part of the official vessel documents. The Romanian Government has not published their conclusions on the incident’s investigation.

The Queen Hind was overloaded, and animals were sentenced to an unavoidable death caused by greed and corruption. The Romanian Government has made no step forward to end live export and has also failed to progress in its commitment to work towards phasing out the trade.

Commented Gabriel Paun, EU Director of Animals International.

Temperatures in the Gulf may reach 50 degrees Celsius in the shade. Despite evidence of Romanian sheep suffering extreme heat stress, in July the Romanian Parliament passed a new law allowing live exports to take place when temperatures rise above 35 degrees Celsius. Even with the added requirements to shear animals and reduce stocking density by 10%, thisnew law breaches the EU transport Regulation that clearly demands Member States to freeze exports if temperatures soar above 35 degrees. 

This bill was debated after the Queen Hind tragedy and was initially aiming to improve the welfare of exported animals by freezing exports during summer, as Australia has done, and having a veterinarian on board all ships. But interference by foreign animal trading companies in the Parliamentary debates saw the bill watered down in a form that breaches the current EU Regulation. 

The audits carried out by the EC in European harbours indicate major deficiencies, especially in Romania which dedicates more than half of their maritime fleet to export of EU animals to third countries. The Commission concluded that these authorisations were granted superficially and that the fleet endangered animals and crew. 

Moreover, within the Farm to Fork strategy the EC intends to revise the EU animal transport regulation and the EP created the Committee of Inquiry on the protection of animals during transport (ANIT). 

Thanks to the ANIT Committee we believe that MEPs will have all the evidence they need to investigate how Member States apply the current Transport regulation and finally stop live transport in favor of meat and carcasses trade.

Commented Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals.

Animals International and Eurogroup for Animals call on the EU Commission to start an infringement procedure against the Romanian Government for continuously failing to comply with the EU animal transport regulation. 

In the aftermath of the incident Eurogroup for Animals members Animals International and Four Paws were both involved in the rescue operations.

ENDS

Some of our WAV posts associated with this:

EU;; Have the Welfare Lobby Been Saying This for Years ? – DG SANTE audit reveals major problems with live export from Romania ! – World Animals Voice

Romania: The Live Export Sheep Trade Is Killing Farmers -Romania Needs Meat Processing; and Fast ! – World Animals Voice

Breaking – Romanian Government Calls Off Rescue Efforts to Save Sheep Still Alive Inside Export Ship, Despite Claims That Sounds Can Still Be Heard. – World Animals Voice

Syrian Crew; Registered in the Pacific; A Rust Bucket Vessel 40 Years Old, Ignorant Romania ; Useless EU – It All Adds Up to a Cheap and Nasty Live Export Business as We Have Said for Decades ! – World Animals Voice

Well Done France- Imposing a Live Animal Transport Ban in Extreme Heat. But EU, What About the 70,000 Romanian Sheep Being Exported In 40 Degrees Temperatures ? – Time the EU Enforced Its Policies – Hard Action not Soft Talk ! – World Animals Voice

EU: Live Export Latest – MEP Demands Action Against Romania – and … Is the new President-elect of the Commission committed to making a change for animals? – World Animals Voice

Kuwait / Romania: Livestock Ship Watch – 70,000 Live Sheep Exported from Romania en route to Kuwait. – World Animals Voice

Romania: Is Exporting 70,000 Live Sheep to the Gulf. They are Still In Port in Midia (Romania) – More News to Come. – World Animals Voice

Regards Mark

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EU and US block plans to protect world’s fastest shark. – World Animals Voice

EU and US block plans to protect world’s fastest shark

The population of shortfin mako, mainly caught as bycatch but also prized by sports fishermen, is facing an alarming decline

 

Conservationists accused the EU and the US at negotiations of Atlantic fishing nations this week of blocking urgently needed plans to protect the world’s fastest shark species.

The strength and speed of the shortfin mako, which can swim up to 43mph, makes it a target for sports fishermen, particularly in the US, while its highly prized meat and fins have led to the shark being overfished globally – and dangerously so in the north Atlantic.

The population could take five decades to recover even if fishing were to stop immediately, according to scientists at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), a fisheries management organisation.

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The majority of mako caught in the north Atlantic in 2019 were landed by EU vessels, mainly from Spain and Portugal followed by Morocco. Most mako sharks are bycatch – accidentally caught by boats hunting different species.

Last year, international governments voted to regulate trade in the endangered species, under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, after the EU co-sponsored a proposal.

But there was no outright ban, and this week Britain – in its first official act as an independent member of ICCAT – backed a proposal by Canada for such a ban. The UK said it was extremely disappointed that no agreement had been reached in 2019.

The EU and the US, however, refused to back the ban, saying it would not in itself stop mako mortality as bycatch. Each suggested separate proposals that would allow boats to continue to land mako in certain circumstances. Given the lack of consensus, the ICCAT committee chairman said he had no choice but to postpone any decision on mako catches until 2021.

“North Atlantic mako depletion remains among the world’s most pressing shark conservation crises, yet the EU and US put short-term fishing interests above all else and ruined a golden opportunity for agreeing a clear and simple remedy,” said Ali Hood, director of conservation for the Shark Trust.

Grantly Galland, an officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts’ fisheries team, said the delay in adopting a ban would speed the decline of a species already at dangerously low population levels.

“The only real advice from scientists to ICCAT is to have a no-retention policy. Another year of catching at the current level will leave the population in the north Atlantic in even worse shape,” Galland said.

Scientists warned last year that the important predator was declining faster than previously thought. They recommended annual landings of mako in the north Atlantic be reduced from 3,000 tonnes to 300, to allow the population to recover.

Ian Campbell, associate director of policy for Project Aware, a non-profit working with sports divers in ocean protection, said: “It has been heartbreaking to watch the US devolve from a global shark conservation leader to a primary obstacle to international, science-based protections for endangered makos.” He urged the incoming Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration to “restore US commitment to science and the precautionary approach”, particularly for vulnerable marine life.

EU and US block plans to protect world’s fastest shark | Sharks | The Guardian

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USA: Trump is rushing to hold a fire sale of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. – World Animals Voice

Hi Mark,

Just as polar bear cubs are about to be born and begin denning with their mothers, Trump is rushing to hold a fire sale of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

He invited oil and gas companies to identify which areas of the refuge’s coastal plain they’d like to drill, then proposed to toss out rules on offshore drilling. New cubs could one day see oil rigs from their dens.

This pristine landscape is not his to sell, so we’re in court to stop him.

Please support our work to keep drilling out of the Arctic by giving to the Saving Life on Earth Fund. Your donation today will be doubled.

Trump and his greedy friends know time’s running out for them to plunder public lands for personal gain, which is why they’re moving fast to auction off leases to drill in the refuge.

Those leases will make it harder to keep this treasured landscape from turning into an oilfield.

We can’t let them get away with this last-minute money grab.

We’re in court to block more than 1.5 million acres of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from being opened to oil and gas drilling.

And we have a separate lawsuit in the works to stop Trump’s plan to open more than 18 million acres of the western Arctic.

Drilling in these areas will cause oil spills and greenhouse gas emissions already threatening polar bears with extinction. It will also decimate important caribou habitat, including areas where they raise their calves.

It’s obscene that after one of the worst seasons of wildfires and hurricanes in history, the administration’s priority is to worsen the climate crisis by giving handouts to Big Oil.

We can’t let the administration get away with ruining the Arctic refuge on its way out the door.

Please, help our fight for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge today with a matched gift to the Saving Life on Earth Fund.

For the wild,

Kierán Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity

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I watched today a very disturbing programme on the plastic pollution down the entire lengths of the Wite and Blue Nile rivers.  Microplastics which are in all the fish now swimming the Nile; caught and eaten by people; and the huge, massive plastic dumps on which cows, donkeys and goats are grazing to survive.  Tributaries of the Nile now completely clogged / blocked up with used plastic bags and just the largest amount of plastic bottles you will ever see.  Depressing, real depressing.

It was on ‘Sky’ – and here is the link in which you can see some of the devastation I witnessed in the programme.

https://news.sky.com/story/plastic-nile-pulling-up-plastic-from-the-river-is-horribly-frighteningly-easy-11996674

Here is the trailer video for the programme – https://youtu.be/3Iz1OzZDgUw

“Fish in the Nile have no choice but to eat plastic”.

The thing I find most depressing is that there are some world people who; given their financial status; could pump some money into solving eco disasters such as this.  Instead they become simple losers who do everything in their power to remain non-losers.  For weeks now we have watched with sadness and amazement, the things that one person will do to try and hold on to power; when the good people of the USA have enacted their democratic right and voted to rid themselves of the plague that currently infests the White House.

But, he, the ‘infestation’; is a global warming climate denier, does not give a damn about animals or the environment in general; yet seems to expect; or should that be ‘demand’, that people fully support him ?

He has money which could be put into fighting world climate and eco devastation projects; instead he pumps it all into keeping his own, and his families heads above water; attempting to preserve his status when the democratic right of the American people have told him to take a walk.

His fortune will not solve any eco problems the world has; which is very sad considering that if he really wanted to be ‘liked’ by a lot more; he could easily invest into campaigns to improve the planet and make it a better place rather than the eco disaster it is now rapidly becoming.  So, in my personal view; an idiot who will never get one ounce of respect out of me.  Respect has to be earned; I have learnt that throughout my life trying to be a voice for animals; and to me; he deserves not one ounce of respect; he is simply not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat; he is a Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, being a Brit, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a big time bully.

I think you can guess who I write about !

From supporter ‘Climate Change Take Action Now’ who we thank for drawing this very important issue to our attention.  We are really an animal site; but like all people involved with animals; protection of the environment and the wonderful world we inhabit is all part of the same game.

Regards Mark – and give a shit when it comes to being a voice for the planet and for the environment.

https://youtu.be/K9MaGf-Su9I

Climate change: Europe’s melting glaciers | DW Documentary

It is far too late to save the Alpine glaciers. And now, the dangers caused by tons of melting ice are rising sharply. Every year, climate change is destroying two of the currently 70 square kilometers of glaciers left in the Alps.

The permafrost in the Alps is thawing, and transforming what used to be sturdy slopes into loose screes. In addition, climate change is leading to significantly more extreme weather conditions every year, while heavy rainfall causes serious erosion. The result: avalanches and landslides like those in Bondo, Switzerland, or Valsertal in Austria.
In Switzerland, residential areas are shrinking as people are forced to leave their homes forever. The disappearance of glaciers as water reservoirs is already posing a major problem. Farmers in Engadine, who have been using meltwater for irrigation for centuries, are already facing water shortages. Last summer, they had to rely on helicopters to transport water to their herds in the Grison Alps. Above all, alpine villages depend on winter tourism to survive. Yet experts are forecasting that by mid-century, there will only be enough natural snow left to ski above 2,000 meters, which will spell out the end for about 70 percent of the ski resorts in the Eastern Alps. But instead of developing alternatives, lots of money is still being invested in ski tourism. Snow cannon are used to defy climate change, and artificial snow systems are under construction at ever higher altitudes. As usual, it’s the environment that is set to lose as the unique alpine landscape is further destroyed by soil compaction and erosion. Some municipalities are now working on new models of alpine tourism for the future. As global temperatures continue to rise, the cooler mountain regions will become increasingly attractive for tourists, especially in the summer.

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A few glacier related issues we have covered on WAV in the past:

Switzerland: Pizol glacier: Swiss hold funeral for ice lost to global warming. – World Animals Voice

Tibet: Tibet sees 27.7 percent fall in glacier ice coverage, research finds. – World Animals Voice

Greenland’s Ice Has Melted Beyond Return, Study Suggests. – World Animals Voice

Environmental – The ‘doomsday’ glacier. – World Animals Voice

Climate Change Reconsidered: Science the U.N. Will Exclude from Its Next Climate Report – News on Climate Change

https://youtu.be/jaVL1Ham-4A

Climate Change Reconsidered: Science the U.N. Will Exclude from Its Next Climate Report

“Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science” — produced by a team of 40 scientists — is the newest volume in the Climate Change Reconsidered series produced by The Heartland Institute and members of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC). As in previous reports, thousands of peer-reviewed articles are cited to determine the current state-of-the-art of climate science. This newest volume’s findings challenge the alarmist reports of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose next report is due out later this month. NIPCC authors paid special attention to contributions that were overlooked by the IPCC or that presented data, discussion, or implications, arguing against the IPCC’s claim that dangerous global warming is occurring, or will occur, from human-related greenhouse gas emissions.

 

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Staying on the disgusting issue of the fur trade:

 

Now France slaughters its mink: Up to 1,000 animals are culled at farm in western France after Covid positive test after cases in Denmark, Sweden, Greece and the Netherlands

• Mink infected with coronavirus been found in France and are set to be culled
• One thousand mink will be slaughtered after tests identified the virus at a farm
• Officials locked down swathes of northern Denmark where variant originated.

Mink infected with coronavirus have been found in France and are set to be culled after the virus was detected at a farm in the western part of the country.  

One thousand mink will be slaughtered after tests identified the virus at a farm in the Eure-et-Loire region of western France after the country started testing its four mink farms in mid-November.

It comes after officials locked down swathes of northern Denmark where a new Covid-19 variant originated and ordered the culling of 17million mink earlier this month in a bid to stomp out the strain before it became widespread. 

Cases in mink have also been reported elsewhere in Europe, notably in Sweden, Greece and the Netherlands.

A French Ministry spokesman said: ‘At this stage, tests have shown the virus circulating in an Eure-et-Loire farm.

‘A second farm is unscathed. Tests are still under way in the last two farms, with results expected during the week.’  

The new Covid-19 variant — called Cluster 5 — caused global panic after it was found to be resistant to antibodies, substances made by the body to fight off infections. 

It was feared Cluster 5 would be able to slip past promising new Covid-19 vaccines, which work by stimulating an antibody response. 

Officials locked down swathes of northern Denmark where the strain originated and ordered the culling of 17million mink earlier this month in a bid to stomp out the variant before it became widespread.

In a statement today, the country’s health ministry said there had been ‘no new cases of Cluster 5 since September 15’ which led it to conclude it ‘has most likely been eradicated’.  

Scientists believe the mutant virus jumped from fur farm workers to mink in the summer before it was passed back to humans.  As it crossed between species, a mutation occurred on its ‘spike’ protein, which it uses to enter human cells. It was significant because the leading vaccine candidates work by targeting this protein. 

When news about the new strain broke earlier this month, Britain banned non-British citizens returning from Denmark and introduced strict quarantine rules for any Brit who’d recently returned from the country.

At the time, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned the mutated could have ‘grave consequences’ if it became widespread.    

The Danish health ministry said in a statement on Thursday : ‘There have been no new cases of the Cluster 5 mink mutation since September 15, which has led to the Danish infectious disease authority SSI to conclude that this variant has most likely been eradicated.’ 

The Government said most of the strict lockdown rules imposed on November 5 on seven municipalities in North Jutland would be lifted on Friday. They had originally been due to stay in place until December 3.  

Cluster 5 has only been found in 13 people living in the region, which is home to 280,000 people. 

All minks in the seven municipalities have been culled, totalling 10.2 million, and the slaughter is still ongoing in other parts of the country.

With three times more minks than people, the Scandinavian country is the world’s biggest exporter, selling pelts for around £596million ($792m) annually, and the second-biggest producer behind China. 

Farmers living in regions of Denmark not affected by the mutated strain of Covid-19 are still allowed to sell mink fur — but must still kill all their livestock this month.  

Five different strains of mutant mink coronavirus have been spotted in 214 people in Denmark since June. 

Analysis by Denmark’s State Serum Institute revealed only Cluster 5 was less sensitive to antibodies. 

Antibodies are disease-fighting proteins made and stored by the immune system to fight off invaders in the future by latching onto their spike proteins. 

But if they are unable to recognise proteins because they have mutated, it means the body may struggle to attack a virus the second time and lead to a second infection. 

It raised fears the new strain could be harder to treat or vaccinate against.  

It is not uncommon for viruses to be able to jump between humans and other animals – which was also the case for H5N1, or bird flu, and H1N1, swine flu.

The sole purpose of any virus is to replicate as many times as possible. So when a virus jumps from one species to another it naturally mutates to adapt to a new host. 

With Covid-19, tiny changes in its DNA occurred when it was passed to mink. It means that when the virus was passed back to humans its biology was different, so it may behave differently to other strains while inside humans.

It is not uncommon for viruses to be able to jump between humans and other animals – which was also the case for H5N1, or bird flu, and H1N1, swine flu.

The sole purpose of any virus is to replicate as many times as possible. So when a virus jumps from one species to another it naturally mutates to adapt to a new host. 

With Covid-19, tiny changes in its DNA occurred when it was passed to mink. It means that when the virus was passed back to humans its biology was different, so it may behave differently to other strains while inside humans.

Now France slaughters its mink: Up to 1,000 animals are culled at farm in western France | Daily Mail Online

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It’s not just mink: Foxes and raccoon dogs on fur farms ‘may infect humans with coronaviruses’, scientists warn | The Independent

It’s not just mink: Foxes and raccoon dogs on fur farms ‘may infect humans with coronaviruses’, scientists warn

Exclusive: The whole industry has the potential to act as a virus factory, say animal-welfare activists

Other animals reared for their fur – such as foxes and raccoon dogs – can catch coronaviruses and pass it to humans, scientists have warned, after millions of mink across Europe were culled over fears they could spread Covid-19.

The World Organisation for Animal Health has advised countries to monitor for infection “susceptible animals, such as mink and racoon dogs”, as well as humans in close contact with them.

A scientific paper this summer warned that raccoon dogs “are susceptible to and efficiently transmit” Covid-19 and “may serve as intermediate host” for it – meaning they may transmit Covid-19 to people.

It prompted animal-protection lobbyists to claim “all fur farming has the potential to act as a virus factory”.

A scientific paper in 2004 reported that foxes in a wildlife market in Guanzhou, China, were found to have been infected with Sars-CoV, which causes Sars, another type of coronavirus.

Coronavirus fears as China plans to entrench mink and fox fur industry

It’s estimated that more than 32 million foxes and raccoon dogs are held in fur farms around the world, their pelts mostly destined for markets in Asia.

An outbreak of coronavirus in mink in Denmark earlier this month prompted the country to begin a cull of all 17 million of the animals on its fur farms. Some were suffering a mutated form of the virus, which infected more than 200 people.

Governments in four other countries – Spain, Greece, the Netherlands and Ireland – have also issued orders or advice to cull their farmed mink populations.

Experts are worried that the new human coronavirus vaccines may not be effective against mutated strains.

The British Fur Trade Association insists that species other than mink, “such as fox and wild fur” are not affected by the virus. It says fur farms worldwide have put in place extensive biosecurity measures after the mink outbreaks.

But the paper by 17 scientists stated that raccoon dogs “were suspected as potential intermediate host for both SARS-CoV6 and SARS-CoV2”. The authors wrote: “Rapid, high-level virus shedding, in combination with minor clinical signs and pathohistological changes… highlight the role of raccoon dogs as a potential intermediate host.  

“The results are highly relevant for control strategies and emphasise the risk that raccoon dogs may represent a potential SARS-CoV-2 reservoir.”  

Raccoon dogs in a wildlife market in Shenzhen, China, were also found to have been infected with Sars.

Christian Drosten, director the Institute of Virology at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, has even suggested fur-farm raccoon dogs, rather than pangolins, were the source of Covid-19, telling The Guardian earlier this year: “Raccoon dogs are a massive industry in China, where they are bred on farms and caught in the wild for their fur. If somebody gave me a few hundred thousand bucks and free access to China to find the source of the virus, I would look in places where raccoon dogs are bred.”

Most zoonotic diseases in modern times, from the 1918 flu pandemic onwards, have had animal origins, with viruses infecting humans emerging from birds, farmed animals and wild hunted animals.

The stress of being caged literally drives animals mad and also suppresses their immunity, making them especially susceptible to disease, scientists say.

Globally, 94 million animals are farmed for their fur, including 61 million mink, 20.1 million foxes and 12.4 million raccoon dogs, according to figures from Humane Society International, with China the biggest single fur-producing country.

The UK has banned fur farming but still imports of real fur. The value of imports rose from about £55m in 2016 to £70m-£75m in the following two years, but then last year fell back to £55.9m last year, according to HMRC figures.

Raccoon dogs, which originate in Asia and are distant cousins of foxes, are a separate species from raccoons, natives of America.

Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International (HSI) who has visited fur farms, said: “Fox and raccoon dogs who are reared for fur in their millions across Europe, China and north America can also become infected with SARS-CoV-related viruses, and considering the appalling conditions in which these animals are forced to live, it’s little wonder that fur farms have the potential to act like virus factories.  

“If we learn anything from the tragic scenes of mink culls, it must be that we cannot continue to exploit and push animals beyond the limit of their endurance, not only causing them immense suffering but also putting human lives at risk, all for a frivolous fur fashion item that nobody needs.”

HSI says the fur trade has been “in freefall” for several years, with average pelt prices at auction houses dropping and growing numbers of financial institutions, including Standard Chartered and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, adopting policies not to invest in the trade.

Ms Bass said the fact that the virus had spread and mutated within stressed mink populations was “another major nail in the coffin” of the fur industry, and accused the UK of being complicit in the cruelty by importing fur.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Fur farming has rightly been banned in this country for nearly 20 years. Once our future relationship with the EU has been established, there will be an opportunity for the government to consider further steps it could take in relation to fur sales.

 “We have also co-created the leaders’ pledge for nature, which includes a commitment to working globally to address the links between how we treat our planet and the emergence of infectious diseases.”

The Independent has asked the British Fur Trade Association and the International Fur Federation to comment.

 

 

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