Two years ago, Great Britain passed the Fur Farming Prohibition Act 2000 which set out a procedure under which it would eventually become illegal to keep animals solely to slaughter them for fur. The actual implementation date of the act had been delayed while details were worked out regarding compensation for the 13 fur farms that were in existence when the act was passed.
Those details were finalized recently and at the end of December the government announced that all fur farms must be out of business by January 1, 2003. Currently there are only three such business left in Great Britain.
Farms forced out of business will be able to receive compensation for the government for loss of earnings and for the disruption caused in needing to find a new line of work.
Source:
Last mink fur farms must close by 2003. Paul Brown, The Guardian (London), December 28, 2001.