Denmark sets a date to end mink farming: August 2027
The Danish government will not seek the exemption that would have let it keep farming mink once the EU's restrictions on the invasive species apply, so mink farming will be banned from 7 August 2027. Denmark had 1,147 mink farms before the pandemic, when it culled some 17 million animals over Covid outbreaks. Seven remain. The EU has not yet banned fur farming as a whole.
Before the pandemic, Denmark had 1,147 mink farms. Seven are left, and now they have a closing date: the Danish government has decided not to seek the exemption that would have let it keep farming them, so farming American mink will be banned from 7 August 2027, according to the charity Humane World for Animals.
In 2025 the EU added the American mink to its list of invasive alien species, which requires countries to stop keeping it unless the European Commission authorises an exception. Finland has applied for one; Denmark has not.
What changed in 2020
In November 2020, Covid outbreaks on 290 Danish farms led to the culling of some 17 million mink. Hundreds of human infections were linked to virus variants that emerged in the animals, and farmers received more than €3 billion in compensation. The industry never recovered.
What is still missing in Europe
Denmark’s decision does not mean fur farms are disappearing from the EU. They are already banned in 24 European countries, 18 of them EU members, but elsewhere some 6 million animals are still kept on nearly 1,200 farms, according to the same charity.
“A momentous decision,” said Joanna Swabe of Humane World for Animals Europe, who is calling on the European Commission to deliver an EU-wide ban on fur farming.
