Ted Parkinson is a mink farmer in Ontario and member of the Canada Mink Breeders Association. The farm is a family operation, with Ted’s father starting when he was 15 years old. Ted has now been raising mink for over 30 years, and has been joined by his daughter and son in law. “I still enjoy it to this day, after 30 years,” says Ted. One of the questions Ted commonly hears is how mink are euthanized, and so he explains. “We use carbon monoxide gas. We bring a container down the row with the gas in the container. We put the mink in. It’s an odorless gas so they won’t even realize what’s happening. It’s stress-free, it’s quick, and it’s a system that works well for us. It’s very easy on the mink and on the operators.” Visiting Ted’s farm is a student veterinarian from the University of Guelph studying animal behavior and welfare, with a focus on stereotypical behavior. One of the things she is researching is the effect of adding a simple wire “getaway box” to pens used by nursing mothers. The boxes allow the nursing mothers to get away from their demanding kits for a while to rest. This is expected to reduce the incidence of mastitis in mothers, and hasten the transition of the kits to solid food, resulting in healthier and larger mothers and kits. As for the standard of care received by the mink, our student says, “Compared to other farmed animals, mink have it pretty much the best.”

Up until 1900, Charles Dalton and Robert Oulton were the only individuals breeding foxes in the West Prince area of Prince Edward Island, Canada. In 1900, Dalton sold a pair of breeders to Robert Tuplin and Captain James Gordon and another to B.I. and Silas Raynor. These six men formed the "Big Six Combine" and made a pact not to sell outside the circle. Robert Tuplin soon sold a pair to his nephew, Frank. Frank, unlike the "Big Six Combine" could sell to anyone. Fox farming soon spread throughout the Island with many men, including J.P. Hooper from Charlottetown, shown here, becoming involved in the industry. Photo credit: Public Archives and Record Office of Prince Edward Island, Fox Farming in Prince Edward Islands, Acc. 3466/HF 76.57.5

When the fox industry began in Prince Edward Island, Canada, foxes were kept in communal enclosures. When in these enclosures, foxes tended to kill their pups and fight amongst themselves. Individual pens were soon adopted by breeders. The wire used in making the pens was laid on the ground so foxes could not escape. In 1913, 277 Island fox farms were listed. There was a slight decrease to 252 farms during the war years but the industry rebounded and by 1923, there were 448 farms on Prince Edward Island: 291 in Prince County, 129 in Queens County and 28 in Kings County. Photo Credit: Public Archives and Record Office of Prince Edward Island, Fox Farming in Prince Edward Islands, Acc. 3466/HF 77.147.4

“I love what I do.  It’s absolutely the last thing I thought I would be doing today, but I really enjoy it,” says Catherine Moores. Catherine was once an animal activist, until she found herself working closely with farmers through her studies, and with sealers and local sealskin crafts people through summer employment. Her perspective began to change from anti-animal use, to responsible and humane animal use. Today (April 2016) Catherine manages a 10,000 female breeder mink farm in the small community of Cox’s Cove, and is president/spokesperson of the Newfoundland and Labrador Fur Breeders Association. Learn more about the Newfoundland and Labrador Fur Breeders Association at furfarming.ca.

Catherine Moores runs New Mink Inc. mink farm in Nova Scotia with 10,000 breeders. As a girl, Catherine opposed all animal uses except for cats and dogs as pets, but her perspective changed after she began studying to become a vet at Nova Scotia Agricultural College. “I started working more with farmers, visiting farms, and actually seeing their relationship with the animals,” she recalls. “I began to realize that these people [are] working with the animals because they have an appreciation for the animals and respect for the animals, and they actually enjoy working with the animals, because if they didn’t, I don’t think that they would do it. So when I was offered this job, I decided to take it.” Catherine explains the importance of diet for farmed mink. “The majority of our feed ingredients are sourced through local fish plants. Now we feed probably between 60 and 70% fish by-products, and this is providing employment to the local fish processors. And the diet changes through every year depending on the cycle that the mink is going through at the time. We are constantly balancing the diets. We send a feed sample away every week to make sure that our fat and protein levels are exactly where we want them.” In addition to a high-quality diet, “I think that we provide the mink with a very good quality of life. We provide protection from the elements. We provide them with their own comfort zones, their own territories. … We provide them with fresh bedding, warm nest boxes. We do health checks three times a week. We walk through the barns and physically look at all the animals and treat any sick ones accordingly.” “People always comment when they walk on our farm how content the mink seem,” says Catherine. “So I think we have provided them a good-quality life. I love my job, I do. It is the very last thing that I thought I would be doing today, but I really do love it.”

Bob Zimbal is a mink farmer from Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Michigan. The Zimbal Minkery has raised mink for 60 years. “What I like about mink farming is the fact that you’re outside working with the animal,” says Bob. “I think any type of farming you do, you have to have some kind of love of animals to do that because, you know, in the end that’s what we do every day." To opponents of fur, Bob has this to say. “Everybody has the right to choose not to eat meat, not to wear fur, not to use leather. They have the right to their opinion, but also they should respect our right to our opinion, and if we choose to wear fur, that’s our choice.” The Zimbal Minkery is keen to spread a positive image of mink farming, and gladly opens its doors to visitors. “We do quite a bit of tourism. We’ll probably in a year get 500 people through our farm at various times, and a lot of times the comment we’ll get is, ‘Oh, you’re almost like a recycler. You’re using all the by-products that aren’t for human consumption, and you’re recycling this and making it into a beautiful mink skin which can be used for a garment’.” “What I always like when people come to our farm and look, I like to compare it to other types of agriculture. If you’re a dairy farmer or an egg producer, you become an expert at your field, and we as mink farmers, we’ve become experts in the fields of the nutrition and the management of the animals. I don’t care if you’re raising mink, you’re raising chickens or cows, for the farmer raising them, it’s in his best interest to give those animals the best care, the best food, the best veterinarian care, because in the end the better you care for your animals, the better they will produce for you.”

Jeff Mitchell owns a 150-acre mixed farm with mink in Norwich, Ontario. The farm was started in 1949 by his father with just four female mink and one male. It’s grown to 3,200 females today, producing 13,000 mink a year. “Ever since I was a small child, I’ve always been involved with the mink,” says Jeff. Several family members help out on the farm, plus local hires. “I live in a rural community, and if I can create employment for someone … I’m really glad to do it because that brings a job into our community, and we try to keep our people busy at home first.” Jeff enjoys the challenges brought by running a mixed farm. “Looking after the cattle is a different part of my life, something different to learn about, to watch and to grow. Each phase of agriculture is different, and we all have different ways of doing what we do.” He points at a neighbor’s field with cattle, horses and sheep all together. “Some of us have gone way forward in how we separated and specialized in everything, and some places life hasn’t changed near as much as everybody thinks it has.” Jeff’s mink live on a diet of 85% meat blended with cereal with vitamins and minerals to make a completely balanced diet. By-products used include fish heads, beef tripe, and livers and kidneys. These body organs “are all the parts of the animal that the wild animal goes for first, after it’s made a kill,” says Jeff. “In fact, the mink probably have a lot better diet than a lot of people in our society today.” He also believes his mink are better off than wild mink. “They probably have a lot better diet, on a regular basis, than they ever would in the wild. They’re not out fighting, they’re not running miles looking for their food. They have food on a regular basis, fresh water, a clean dry nest, and they’re monitored to be able to survive because if they don’t survive, we don’t survive.” In the fall, after the mink are harvested, the fat on the carcasses is rendered into biodiesel and the rest is composted along with the manure and used bedding. It is then “returned directly to the land as manure to furnish next year’s crops,” explains Jeff, “which grow exceptionally well on my farm because of said manure.”

Alexandra Suhner Isenberg has been active in the fur trade since 2009 and from 2014 until 2018 was Social Media Manager and then Director of Online Communications at Truth About Fur. A Canadian with a background in fashion, Alexandra developed a passion for fur when she worked as a designer in some of the top luxury fashion houses in Paris and London. She began working in the fur trade when returning to Canada after a decade in Europe. She has lectured about the fur trade and is an advocate of the industry who has visited farms, auction houses, and trade shows across the world. As of 2018, she resides in Sweden, where she runs her own company producing sleepwear. Here she is shown visiting a Finnish fox farm in 2015. "So many people think the fur industry is about glamour and rich people wearing fancy coats," she says. "That's only a tiny part of the industry, and the part that I see is the opposite of that. Visiting a fur farm is usually the opposite of glamorous: here I am at a fox farm in Finland wearing the regulation hazmat suit. These lovely outfits need to be worn by any visitors on the farms, in order to protect the animals from any outside germs."

Marianne Patten farms mink in Glenwood, Nova Scotia. She grew up on a dairy farm, “so agriculture has been intrinsic to my background, brought up with the whole agricultural work ethic, and I always knew I was going to be involved in some aspect of agriculture.” She attended Nova Scotia Agricultural College where she took a degree in animal science. The ranch opened in 2004. As in other places across Canada, agriculture has suffered here. “We used to have 33 dairy farms in this county and now we’re down to three. But what producers are left, we work as a community. I have a number of local beef producers in the area that are taking my manure waste and applying it on their fields to raise hay, so their animals can have a food source. So we are part of a community. If we can work together and help each other out, it becomes a really nice symbiotic relationship.” Like any livestock farmer, Marianne places great importance on animal welfare. “I don’t have a problem with the animals being in a cage,” she says, “providing it’s a proper cage environment in terms of they have access to water, they have access to feed. They have room to do what they want to do – intrinsically what they want to do in terms of running around, stretching, moving, to provide it in cold weather with proper bedding. The animals will tell you whether they’re happy or not. If an animal is constantly portraying injuries or some sort of ill health, you know the environment isn’t good. It’s common sense in some respects.” “I love my job,” says Marianne. “There’s something, even the most mundane or simpler tasks, or even the most frustrating days, you can go home at the end of the day and say I’ve accomplished something. There’s something satisfying, and it’s a hard feeling to explain, about getting up in the morning and providing care and food, water for another being, whether it’s animals or humans. Yes, it does come down to profitability but, as human beings, we have a responsibility if we’re going to undertake especially caring for another human being or an animal, looking after them properly, providing the proper welfare, and understanding their needs, and looking at how you can provide the best quality of food, water, environment for them.”

Raymond Chislett holds a pastel mink at Viking Fur farm in Cavendish, Newfoundland. Learn more about the Newfoundland and Labrador Fur Breeders Association at furfarming.ca.

Peter Noer, a second generation fur farmer, came from Denmark to Newfoundland and Labrador to raise mink. Now he’s also raising a family and teaching his young son to enjoy working with animals as much as he does. “We give our animals the best possible care and humane treatment. In Newfoundland and Labrador, we are required to follow a strictly regulated protocol. And that’s ok because it’s really the only way to produce top-quality fur, our province’s most valuable agricultural export.” Learn more about the Newfoundland and Labrador Fur Breeders Association at furfarming.ca.

In this 360 video tour, you’ll get to see inside a working Canadian mink farm and learn all about how mink are cared for, what they eat, where they live and how Canadian mink farmers produce high quality products for the industry. Visit www.FarmFood360.ca to tour other Canadian farms and food-processing facilities.