The Welfare system WelFur has received highest seal of approval by the European Commission.

The research-based system WelFur for assessing welfare of mink and fox farms has been included in the European Commission's database for "Self-Regulation" and "Co-Regulation" initiatives. A comprehensive evaluation process is required before a highlighting in this database is achieved. The WelFur system 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 for monitoring and improving 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 involved as the independent WelFur-assessor, and since the beginning of 2017 we have visited and evaluated every one of the 2,564 mink farms in Europe, which are signed up for the WelFur welfare system.

"We have been on a fantastic journey together with the Department of Animal Science at Aarhus University. From the initial thoughts and visions until now, where almost all European mink breeders have signed up for WelFur, and our specially trained assessors visit all registered breeders in the three major production seasons and in this way contribute to ensuring the welfare on the European mink and fox farms' says WelFur responsibles at Baltic Control® Gorm Djurhuus and Stephanie Christiansen.

From 2020 the three world leading auction houses:  Kopenhagen Fur, Saga Furs og NAFA only sell European mink and fox furs which are WelFur certified. Because of this almost every mink breeders in Europe have signed up for WelFur and by the end of 2018 Baltic Control® had completed 6,300 WelFur evaluations on 2,564 mink farms.

Source of information: Department of Animal Science at Aarhus University