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Maria Eagle: My aim was to visit more than one, but I could not visit more than one, partly because some farmers' advisers at the time were preventing access to the more notorious farms. However, I was able to visit one during the last Session, after Second Reading of my Bill, and found it extremely informative and interesting--although it did not change my basic view that it was not appropriate to keep wild animals in small cages.
It is surely right that one way in which we may judge the extent of our civilisation and the quality of our society is to look at how we treat our fellow sentient creatures. Do we respect them? Do we do our best to avoid treating them with unjustifiable cruelty, or do we view them merely as a commercial opportunity to be exploited for the fullest profit that may be extracted from them, to the exclusion of all but the most extreme considerations of humane treatment?
I, the Bill's supporters and the Government say that it should be the former. The British Fur Trade Association--which purports to represent the fur farmers, but which, in fact, does not--and many members of the Conservative party who oppose the Bill say that it should be the latter. They are willing to put the freedom of people cruelly to exploit wild animals above any obligation to show humanity and avoid excessive suffering, which keeping wild animals in small cages inevitably causes.
I agree with the hon. Member for Lewes (Mr. Baker) that it is impossible to devise humane standards in intensive farming for the keeping of mink. In fact, the Farm Animal Welfare Council came to that conclusion 11 years ago when it refused to set standards that could be called humane for the keeping of mink.
The Bill extends to all fur-bearing creatures, but in practice it is mink farming that we are concerned about. The hon. Gentleman has already made some remarks on the basic facts about mink farming. There remain 13 mink farms in England--there are none in Scotland or in Wales--down from some 700 in the 1960s. The market for fur has declined in Britain by 99 per cent. since 1980. Despite what certain elements of the industry say, all the evidence is that the market is still declining.
Mink are not indigenous to Britain. They are essentially wild, which, indeed, is a key part of my argument for the Bill. If they were domesticated, it might be possible for
humane welfare standards to be introduced, but when the wild animal is solitary, territorial, ranges over territories of one to three miles and is semi-aquatic, it cannot be right for it to be kept in cages that are no longer than a person's forearm. The cages are no longer than a person's forearm because the mink retreat when anyone approaches the cages--they must be no longer than that, or they could not be fetched out of the cage.It is a fallacy to argue, as it was argued on Second Reading of my Bill, that a species can be domesticated in only 70 years. A wild indigenous animal cannot become a domestic animal in only 70 years. Most of our domestic animals took hundreds or thousands of years to become domesticated.
The key argument that suggests that mink are still wild is that, when they are released--however that may happen--they immediately become feral. They are immediately able to cope, to live and to thrive in the surrounding countryside without any trouble. That is why there are feral populations of mink thriving around all but one of the remaining fur farms in England, destroying indigenous wildlife such as voles and certain birds. Therefore, it would not be possible to devise acceptable standards to keep such creatures in intensively farmed conditions. The animals are denied their natural behaviour and respond by showing clear signs of distress. They become apathetic and resort to performing repetitive, stereotyped movements. They mutilate themselves and others. They may even kill their young.
As I have said, 11 years ago, the Farm Animal Welfare Council made it clear that appropriate standards could not be set. That is still true today. In those circumstances, the only alternative that takes account of animal welfare considerations is a ban.
It is not only in this country that the debate is proceeding. Scotland has already decided to legislate. It took the decision in December last year and a Bill is expected. In Northern Ireland, action was being considered prior to the suspension of the Stormont institutions. One hopes that, if and when they are restored, consideration can be resumed.
Fur farming is effectively banned in Austria. It is not actually banned. The Austrian Government increased the standards of welfare expected to such a level that all the farmers went out of business. Where we have a small and struggling industry that could not possibly adapt and start to put in pools and three-mile territories for all its mink, rather than drive them out of business by increasing welfare standards, it is right and proper to compensate them for leaving the industry.
A Bill before the Italian Parliament offers aid to fur farmers to convert to other forms of agriculture. In Sweden, the agriculture minister has signalled her intention to ban mink and chinchilla farming. Fox farming has already been banned. In the Netherlands, where there are many fur farms, fox farming is being phased out. The Dutch Parliament has voted to ban mink farming. The debate is going on throughout Europe. We can give a lead by taking the decision and supporting the Bill tonight.
My Bill last year did not simply facilitate a debate about the issues of principle. It promoted negotiation between the fur farmers and the Government that has resulted in agreements in several areas.
Private Members' Bills, as anyone who has had the fortunate experience of coming high in the ballot will tell the House, always require consensus to proceed. That is
probably the biggest lesson that one learns as a Member in charge of a Bill with sufficient priority. I spent at least as much time in the previous Session trying to broker an agreement between the Government and the fur farmers as I spent trying to overcome the hurdles that were placed in the path of my Bill to get it through its parliamentary stages.The Government Bill as currently drafted reflects a number of agreements between the Government and the fur farmers on time scales and principles of compensation, for example. As far as I am aware--the Minister will tell me if I am wrong--those agreements still stand. As a result of those, the fur farmers themselves are content for the Bill to proceed. So is the Fur Breeders Association of the United Kingdom, which represents all the fur farmers that remain in the industry. So is the National Farmers Union, which does not oppose progress of the Bill. It represents some of the fur farmers who remain in business.
Mr. Gray: The hon. Member for City of Durham (Mr. Steinberg), who has now left the Chamber, also asserted that the NFU was not opposed to the legislation. That is not quite correct. The letter says:
- It has been asserted incorrectly that the NFU supports this legislation. On the contrary you will appreciate . . . that we strongly dislike the principle of introducing a . . . ban.
The British Fur Trade Association, which is sometimes taken as representing fur farmers, is vocally opposed to the Bill and becomes more strident as time goes on and the closer the Bill gets to the statute book. However, it no longer represents any of the fur farmers. That is because every one of them, I am told, resigned from the association after they formed the view last year that it did not have their interests at heart, so its views should not be said to reflect the wishes of the farmers; they simply do not.
I wish the Bill to proceed as speedily as possible because, since last year, conditions in the industry have deteriorated. The price of fur fell by 31 per cent. at the Copenhagen auctions last year. Another fur farmer is being subjected to a private prosecution in the English courts for cruelty. Last year, one of the farmers was found guilty of 15 counts of cruelty and fined £5,000, with costs of £15,000, yet he still farms mink.
Despite claims to the contrary, in the past year, one of the only remaining fur retailers in London has closed and one of the very few remaining fur processors is in liquidation. The industry is dying. We should help it on its way. The sooner the Bill is enacted, the better. I commend it to the House.
5.59 pm
Mr. Andrew Hunter (Basingstoke): I have listened to the debate so far, just as I have listened to the wider debate on fur farming, with growing incredulity. No one,
let alone the Government this evening, or the hon. Member for Liverpool, Garston (Maria Eagle), has yet convincingly complained why it is wrong to farm animals for their fur, but acceptable to farm them for their meat. I think the reason why we have not yet heard that convincing explanation is that there is none. There is no moral distinction whatsoever; the practices are essentially the same. On that most fundamental of all points, attempts to justify the Bill fail.We heard my hon. Friend the Member for Teignbridge (Mr. Nicholls) intervene on the Minister. Opposition Members, at least, understood the Minister to say that the Bill's justification included the fact that meat farming supplied a majority demand, whereas fur farming supplied only a minority demand--
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