youtube/watch?v=NyKtqLilQ7k&list=UUReMLkS0wxPG2a56TdHOjGQ STATEMENT by the undercover investigator: I did see severe water deprivation. So much so that one time, when I pointed out a fox that was clearly dying; lying listless at the bottom of her cage and bleeding out of her rectum, the fur farmer described that as the first sign of dehydration. To me, the signs of dehydration were much more obvious, like when these frightened, wild animals would rush to the front of the cage and desperately lap up the water as the first drops reached their chewed up plastic water cups. That was such a cold winter and the open-sided barns provided no warmth so that soon the water would be frozen. I dont know how widespread this practice is industry wide, I can only speak for the fur farm I was employed. The foxes on the fur farm sometimes went for two weeks without being offered water. He would simply explain it by saying foxes dont need that much water in the winter time. The reality was that, even though he had a pretty big operation--1000 foxes--he had no automated watering system, so it would take one employee a half day working non stop to give each animal a drink of water. He just didnt afford that much work time to be giving water to animals when there was so much work to be done anally electrocuting hundreds of foxes during the pelting season. I presume he thought that they would be dead soon anyway. The breeding stock got watered much more frequently than the ones who were being pelted that year. I would imagine this same practice occurs on other farms. Big operations often have few staff, and corners are cut to turn a bigger profit. One of the big project on the farm I worked was to make all the cages smaller, so that more rows, and foxes, could be fit in the barn. This work routinely was prioritized over making sure the animals had water.”
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 02:16:33 +0000