The WelFur programme spreads to 10 European countries in 2015

THE WELFUR PROGRAMME SPREADS TO 10 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES IN 2015

Following testing phases in Denmark and Finland since 2013, the Fur Europe flagship - the animal welfare assessment programme WelFur - will be spread out to 10 European countries in 2015. The purpose is to test and calibrate the system in various climates in order to accommodate for farm variation, and to make sure that the assessments are streamlined and standardised no matter where in Europe the WelFur assessment is undertaken. 

The testing will include 2-3 farms in each country. So far, the volunteering countries are The Netherlands, Latvia, France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Denmark and Finland. 

"We are going to spend most of next year to evaluate the test results which have already been achieved in Finland and Denmark. Our thinking is that we want to take good use of the time we spend on evaluating the existing data by, in the meantime, doing tests in the rest of Europe under different conditions," says John Papsø, Chairman of WelFur Steering Council. Established in September, the WelFur Steering Council will lead the pan-European implementation of the WelFur programme. 

The European test assessments will be performed by experienced assessors from the test phases in Denmark and Finland, but the idea is to involve future national assessors already now, by bringing 'trainees' to assessment sessions. In addition, a teaching module is under development. 

Full scale implementation of WelFur in Europe on all farms associated with Fur Europe is planned to begin in 2016.

"A project of this scale that involves so much data and considers all studies emerged from 40-50 years of scientific research on fur farmed species, is not something that can just be brought about from one day to the other. The fur industry works incredibly fast and is committed to WelFur, and I am very confident about the pace of the project. In the end, we will gain a result that is extremely useful and robust in terms of measuring animal welfare standards at farm level," says John Papsø.