Animal welfare concerns have received increasing support of late, both in Iceland and elsewhere. In the current Icelandic animal welfare legislation, from 2013, the stated point of departure is that animals are „sentient beings“. Thereby, the awful idea that from the days of Descartes has been so influential in terms of how people think about animals – that they are no different from machines – is finally discarded. Machines can be taken apart at will, put together again, and tuned for maximum speed and effectiveness. Animals have for a long time been treated in exactly the same way: as cogs in a production machine, where the demand for ever more speed prevails.

Gradually, the sun is setting on those types of farming – or perhaps more accurately industrial production – where caged animals are the norm. The latest news from Norway is that fur farming will be banned from 2025. This is really good news. The keeping of animals in cages – foxes, minks, fowl and salmon for example – will perhaps soon be part of history.

As expected, some Icelandic interest holders have howled wretchedly upon hearing these news from Norway. But that fair country is only the last in a line of many where those beastly farming methods have been outlawed. Eight European countries have already banned all fur farming outright. In Denmark and the Netherlands, fox fur farming is banned. Sweden, Germany and Switzerland have put in place regulation so stringent that fur farming is in all likelihood on the way out.

In Iceland, some 44 thousand minks were kept in cages according to the latest figures from Statistics Iceland; much more than all the people of Kópavogur. They deserve something better, those non-human relatives of ours.