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Mink

Volume 203: debated on Monday 10 February 1992

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To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) on how many occasions in 1990 and 1991 his inspectors supervised, examined or monitored the slaughter of factory farm mink by injection or gassing;(2) if he will outline the methods of gassing used to kill mink observed by his inspectors during visits to fur factory farms in 1990 and 1991.

Officers of the State Veterinary Service observed the slaughter of mink, by gassing, on four occasions in England in 1990. The methods observed involved euthanasia by carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give details of research carried out by his Department to ensure that the method of gassing used to kill mink on Britain's fur factory farms is humane.

This Department has carried out no specific research into the gassing of mink. Research and obervations in other countries have concluded that gassing by carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide as practised in Britain is humane.