Some Russian media reported in June that "the government of Germany signed a law that all fur farms in the country must be closed within five years". Is it so? DW decided to figure it out.

Well, firstly, this information is incorrect already because the German government does not accept laws. This is an executive, not a legislative body. Laws are passed by the German parliament - the Bundestag. He passed the bill. But the Bundesrat - the Council of Federal Lands, which must approve the law, approving it as a whole, still was dissatisfied with the lack of certainty of certain provisions and rules and sent it for revision. The goal is to tighten the wording.

You ask: how much more to tighten, if the law and so orders to close all fur farms for five years?.

But this information is not entirely true. Farms in Germany will be closed for five years in the event that they do not receive a special permit - a license - of the relevant administrative authorities. And they will get a license only when all the rules of keeping animals, caring for them and, sorry, their slaughter. So: the new law of these rules is significant (but, in the opinion of the Council of Federal Lands and some animal protection organizations, it is still not enough) toughened.

This includes, in particular, a larger area of ??cells containing animals, the equipment of fur farms with special climbing complexes and swimming pools. German parliamentarians openly say that these measures should not only facilitate the life of animals that "supply" furs for the fur industry. Another goal is to make unprofitable, unprofitable breeding of these animals. Just ban it and close the fur farms in Germany is impossible, but there is a hope that they will close themselves.

Hope is real. In the early 2000s, there were almost three dozen fur farms in the country specializing in fur production, but then new standards for keeping animals - no less than three square meters per animal were adopted - and more than 20 farms closed. And now this rate has been further increased.

Once again, we emphasize that we are talking about artificially grown animals specially for the fur industry. They are held captive and never lived at large.

In total, there are six farms in Germany where animals are bred for the fur industry: mink, rabbits, chinchillas, muskrats, foxes. Only mink on German fur farming farms each year grows several tens of thousands.

By the way, although the main customers of these farms are German furriers (there are a little more than fifty in the country), but almost all the products of these furriers go to other countries. Reason: in Germany today few people wear products made of natural fur. This is considered unethical. And the new law was passed to the parliament because the animal protection organization PETA collected more than 36 thousand signatures under a corresponding petition submitted to the Bundestag. Could collect more, but this was enough.