Harrowing new footage has emerged showing obese 'monster foxes' bred for their fur in shocking conditions on farms in Finland.
The horrifying video, part of an undercover investigation, shows dangerously overweight animals with huge pelts and rolls of folded skin locked up in cramped cages.
Activists say the bloated silver foxes are being bred up to five times their normal weight for the lucrative fur market. Wildlife expert Chris Packham has described the footage, captured in western Finland, as 'heartbreaking'.
The video, released by Finnish campaign group Oikeutta eläimille (Animal Justice), purports to show conditions at a 'high-welfare' farm. But animals are shown with rolls of fat while some have weeping eye conditions and deformed feet.
Harrowing new footage has emerged showing grossly obese silver foxes bred for their fur in shocking conditions on farms in Finland
The horrifying video, part of an undercover investigation, shows dangerously overweight animals with huge pelts and rolls of folded skin locked up in cramped cages in the country's West
Activists say the foxes are being bred for the lucrative fur market as it emerged that Britain has imported more than £2.5million of fur products from the country in the past five years
Wildlife expert Chris Packham has described footage of the caged animals as 'heart-breaking'
Some are showing signs of stress as a result of their confinement in tiny cages, activists claim.
Foxes at other fur farms are shown living in equally deprived conditions, one sharing a cage with a dead pup.
The latest footage comes as the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee meets this week to probe of the conditions of the global fur trade with a debate on banning fur imports due to take place in Parliament on June 4.
According to the Humane Society International UK (HSI), the film includes footage recorded in March 2018 at a so-called 'high-welfare' SAGA farm. SAGA certification is a fur industry scheme that on its website claims 'animal health and welfare are an absolute prerequisite for high-quality animal breeding.'
Wildlife expert Chris Packham who viewed the footage for HSI UK, said: 'Having observed wild foxes roaming over many kilometres a day, foraging, digging, exploring and socialising, it is heart-breaking to see these beautiful, intelligent animals confined for their entire lives in tiny barren cages on fur farms.
'Deprived of their natural environment the foxes are displaying repetitive behaviours that clearly signal mental distress.
Some of the animals are showing signs of stress as a result of their confinement in tiny cages, activists claim
The animals can weigh up to five times their normal weight and become so bloated they can barely move in their cages
Activists from Oikeutta eläimille said that in the wild, female foxes weigh about 3.5 kilograms while a fox they photographed at one farm weighed more than 19 kilograms
The video was captured at a fur farm in Finland and shows overweight foxes kept locked up in cramped cages
Footage shows grossly obese foxes with infected eyes, deformed feet, living in barren wire cages
Chris Packham said the foxes' physical condition 'is just as worrying as their psychological condition'
'The foxes' physical condition is just as worrying as their psychological condition; lots of the foxes are hugely overweight, many times the size they would be in the wild, and have folded skin, deformed feet and eye infections.
'The investigation clearly shows what we wildlife experts have been saying for years, that these animals are completely unsuitable to be farmed.'
The animals can weigh up to five times their normal weight and become so bloated they can barely move in their cages.
Activists said that in the wild, female foxes weigh about 3.5 kilograms while a fox they photographed at one farm weighed more than 19 kilograms.
'This shocking footage showing obese, sick and mentally broken animals, lays waste to the fur trade’s claims that fur farming is in any way ethical,' said Humane Society executive director Claire Bass.
'Even foxes kept at a "certified" fur farm are shown in utterly deplorable conditions, and no amount of slick marketing propaganda can conceal the fact that keeping wild animals in tiny wire battery cages is inherently and exceptionally cruel.
It typically takes around 10 to 20 'normal' foxes to make a fur coat but the animals are also used to make hats, gilets and trims for jacket hoods, activists said
Harrowing pictures shows over-sized animals with huge pelts and rolls of fat folded over their bodies
The 'monster foxes' are being bred on fur farms in western Finland an investigation has found
'There is no such thing as humane fur farming, so the only way for the UK to ensure that it is not sponsoring this suffering is to ban fur imports.'
It comes a year after Oikeutta eläimille released footage of deplorable conditions at five fur farms across Ostrobothnia in western Finland.
The group's investigation last year found the devastating results of overbreeding by genetic selection. The foxes are also fed a diet with a very high fat content to grow as big as possible.
Footage showed foxes struggling to move and with thick rolls of fur covering their eyelids, making them virtually unrecognisable as foxes.
Oikeutta eläimille said it is illegal in Finland to breed livestock in a way that causes animals to suffer.
It typically takes around 10 to 20 'normal' foxes to make a fur coat but the animals are also used to make hats, gilets and trims for jacket hoods.
Despite the UK having banned fur farming in 2000 for being unethical, campaigners said it is still importing huge amounts of fur from other countries
Foxes at other fur farms are shown living in equally deprived conditions, one sharing a cage with a dead pup
The latest footage comes as the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee meets this week to probe of the conditions of the global fur trade with a debate on banning fur imports due to take place in Parliament on June 4
According to UK trade statistics, over the last five years more than £2.5million of fur articles have been imported into the UK from Finland.
Despite the UK having banned fur farming in 2000 for being unethical, campaigners said it is still importing huge amounts of fur from other countries.
Kristo Muurimaa from Oikeutta eläimille said last year: 'The conditions these animals are in is the result of greed for profits. Bigger skin means more money for the fur farmer. The animals pay the price with suffering.'
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