LZS Lienīte Caune: If fur farming is banned in Latvia, then fur imports should be banned too!

A conversation with Lienīte Caune, Head of the Entrepreneurs' Council of the Latvian Farmers' Union (Latvijas Zemnieku savienība).

The Animal Freedom association (Dzīvnieku brīvība) is actively working to ban fur farming in Latvia. By January, more than 40 thousand people had signed a petition on the Mana Balss website in favor of the ban. Amendments to the Animal Protection Law, promoted by 11 MPs, are being pushed through the Saeima to ban the breeding and keeping of farm animals from 2026 if their sole or main purpose is to obtain fur. There is another draft law with similar content, drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture, which proposes this ban from 2024.

Last Friday, we invited representatives of Animal Freedom to visit the Entrepreneurs' Council of the Latvian Farmers' Union. Also invited were the leaders of the Latvian Pig Breeders Association, the Latvian Fur Breeders Association, the Latvian Poultry Breeders Association and others involved in livestock farming.

We asked, what are the materials that you are showing to the Saeima and on the basis of which a decision is being prepared in Saeima to abolish the entire fur farming industry? We also asked about other sectors: on what basis do they ask Saeima to make decisions that would reduce meat consumption and draw attention to welfare problems in livestock farming?

Then the representatives of the association Animal Freedom came with their presentation. After watching it, I and the livestock farmers and animal breeders came to the conclusion that the animal welfare problem is exaggerated and based on half-truths.

For example, they show us the "terrible" conditions in which pigs are kept - they stand in these small enclosures, they cannot sit down or lie down. Pig farmers say: "Excuse me, but you don't understand anything about pig farming! I do not know where you got these photographs, but they show sows that, after artificial insemination, are kept for a short time in these pens so that they do not hurt each other because they become aggressive. They are afterwards released into an enclosure where they live according to the best welfare standards."

Then they started talking about the calves and the cages they are confined in. Kaspars Melnis, a representative of the livestock sector, asked whether the representatives of the association knew that Latvia is one of the leading countries in the European Union in terms of animal welfare. There are even robotic farms in Latvia where cows can go milk themselves when they want to.

They did not know that and started to sort of backtrack their categorical demands. The board members of Animal Freedom started to say that they would probably have to listen more to the industry. Well, we were glad that at least they had got that far.

About the efforts to ban fur farming in Latvia, we asked - this business is so cruel, shouldn't we make Latvia fur-free - ban fur imports as well?

Animal Freedom's answer to this was very interesting - we could do that, but then we would have to prepare a lot of documents. We said, "That's okay - we'll help you prepare them!"

What does Animal Freedom represent, where does it get its funding?

We also said that we hope very much that Animal Freedom is not an organization that is doing someone's bidding, but is genuinely concerned and fighting for animal rights. That is why Animal Freedom should show goodwill and also speak out against fur imports, not just against fur farming in Latvia.

On the issue of pig and livestock farming, we said that, of course, Animal Freedom can express its opinion and be vegetarian and vegan, but it should be noted that there is a war in Ukraine at the moment and there are many refugees in Europe who will need to be fed. The Latvian pig industry, by the way, has donated many tons of pork to the Ukrainian soldiers so that they can eat.

The association is supported by foreign private donors - half of them. We don't know about the other half - whether they are local or foreign. But the fact remains! If half or even most of them are foreign funders, it shows that the association is not some kind of fighters against animal torture, but a professional lobby organization, probably working in the interests of unknown foreign companies, and certainly not for the benefit of Latvian industries.

Public finance and security authorities should check how crystal clear Animal Freedom is and who the organizations and individuals are that fund it. And only then to bring to the Saeima Economic Committee a proposal to ban an industry.

If an out-of-context picture of a sow standing in an enclosure can be used as a reason for banning an industry, then even worse pictures and videos could be taken in a maternity hospital. There, too, things look horrific, because women are screaming, they are in pain. So maybe we should ban Latvian women from giving birth? Never mind that it is a natural process.

Poultry farmers stress that if a hen has unsuitable, poor living conditions, she will not put on weight, she will lay bad eggs or she will not lay at all. Poultry farmers themselves therefore have a vested interest in providing good conditions for their hens, otherwise they will have no business and no development of the sector.

On the Animal Freedom website, in the Companies Register and other sources of information, you can read that three people are employed, but since 2017, Lursoft shows that it has paid zero in taxes and zero in wages until the end of 2020. What this means, I do not know. Maybe, if you dig a little deeper, everything is in order - maybe they have author contracts or are self-employed. But now the State Revenue Service should be interested in what kind of organization it is that employs three people, and how the wages are calculated.

On their website and in their meetings with us, they are very emphatic about their transparency. I am sorry, but transparency means disclosing, not hiding, the sources of sponsorship and who the true beneficiaries are.

Such an association, which has just almost succeeded in liquidating a sector of the economy, should have been checked by officials, and it would have been useful for MPs to find out who they were really dealing with in the first place.

But animal advocacy is now a popular thing. For example, a ban has been achieved on wild animals being trained to perform in circuses. And it's not only in Latvia that there is such a movement...

But I doubt whether in Western Europe such actions, campaigns and changes in the law are financed from abroad. Besides, there is a war in Europe at the moment, and a ban on animal farming will be another blow to the Latvian economy. In Latvia, such an abolition should only be decided if politicians are 100% convinced that it is the Latvian people who want it, not foreigners, and that it is not a millennial trend with no understanding and consideration.

We are not against the banning of fur animals, but we are against the double morality of closing down all the fur farms in Latvia, while in the meantime new ones may even open up abroad. As I said, if Latvia is abolishing its own industry, then fur imports must be banned completely!

What is the current proportion of fur farming in the overall economy?

There are about 20 breeding farms, mostly mink farms. There are farms with at least €20 million of invested foreign capital. I do not think that the proportion of the sector is insignificant. But I stress that I am not advocating the fur industry at all! No! It is simply that this case has "blown up" the ways and processes by which production facilities or even industries are closed or not closed in Latvia.

Could it be that some foreign sponsors involved in the fur industry are paying an association in Latvia to get competitors out of the way?

That is what I am talking about. We cannot prove it, but it leads us to believe so. Every such Animal Freedom initiative of this kind should be analyzed by officials and verified by law enforcement - that everything is in order.

And then we could talk about a ban?

Then it could be discussed.

There were periods when fur was very fashionable, but do we now really have such an overwhelming desire on the part of people to wear fur?

It is no longer fashionable. It has gone quite far in that people want less and less natural fur clothing. A number of the world's most influential fashion brands have announced that they will no longer use fur.

That is why there is no reason to be in such a hurry - the fur business is declining and will probably die a natural death. If there is no demand, there will be no supply. But why rush now, when every euro cent is important for the economy?