WelFur is the first animal welfare-focused initiative ever to receive this seal of approval from the European Commission.

The research-based system WelFur for assessing the animal welfare of mink and fox farms has been included in the European Commission's database for "Self-Regulation" and "Co-Regulation" initiatives. It needs a comprehensive evaluation process to be highlighted in this database where the WelFur program has been assessed on a wide range of principles including stakeholder participation, transparency, reliability, feasibility and regulatory compliance. In the European Commission's database, WelFur is described, among other things, as "a knowledge-based, practical and reliable on-farm welfare assessment system that serves as a tool to monitor and improve animal welfare and with transparency can demonstrate good welfare-friendly management". WelFur is the first animal-welfare-focused initiative ever to achieve this recognition at the highest level.

Baltic Control® is proud to be the independent certification body that with its WelFur assessors since the beginning of 2017 has visited and assessed the 2,564 mink farms in Europe, which are enrolled in the WelFur welfare program.

‘It has been a fantastic journey we have been to together with the Department of Animal Science at Aarhus University. From the initial thoughts and visions to now, where almost all European mink breeders have signed up for WelFur, and our specially trained assessor team visits all registered breeders in the three important production seasons and thus contributes to securing the welfare of the European mink and fox farms' says WelFur responsible at Baltic Control® Gorm Djurhuus and Stephanie Christiansen.

From 2020, the three major auction houses: Kopenhagen Fur, Saga Furs and NAFA will only sell European WelFur-certified mink and fox furs. Almost all European mink farmers have therefore signed up for WelFur and by the end of 2018, Baltic Control® has completed 6,300 WelFur assessments of 2,564 mink farms.

Read more here: Department of Animal Science at Aarhus University