In just one decade, a longtime fashion mainstay has been relegated to the sidelines of both haute couture runways and bargain clothing racks: fur.

In 2014, over 140 million minks, foxes, chinchillas, and raccoon dogs — a small, fox-like East Asian species — around the world were farmed and killed for their fur. By 2024, that number plummeted to 20.5 million, according to an analysis from the nonprofit Humane World for Animals using data from governments and industry. (Disclosure: I worked at Humane World for Animals, formerly known as the Humane Society of the United States, from 2012 to 2017, but I didn’t work on fur issues.)

The data encompasses the vast majority of animals raised on fur farms, though it doesn’t include the number of animals painfully ensnared in traps, which account for a small share of global fur production. It also doesn’t include fur from rabbits.

The rapid transformation represents a shift in the perception of fur from a luxury good that signals wealth and status to an ethical faux pas. It’s perhaps the biggest animal welfare campaign success story of the 21st century, achieved by pressuring major fashion brands to drop fur from product lines and persuading lawmakers across Europe and elsewhere to ban the production and even sale of fur.

Covid-19 hastened Europe’s move away from fur production, as mink — the species farmed for fur in the greatest numbers around the world — were found to be especially susceptible to the virus, and mink-associated strains spilled back over to infect humans. Economic headwinds and shifting political dynamics in Russia and China, two of the world’s biggest fur producers and consumers, helped change the course of the global industry, too.

The outlook for billions of animals used by humans every year, in industries from meat production to scientific research, is largely bleak. But the fall of fur shows progress is possible.

The brutality of fur farming, briefly explained

A lot of factors have contributed to the global decline in fur production, but there’s a key reason why it was possible to make progress against the industry. It produces an unnecessary luxury product that is, unlike meat, financially out of reach for most people. And that it’s so unnecessary makes its cruelty all the more horrific.

Animals farmed for fur are confined in tiny wire-bottom cages that are often stacked atop one another, causing........

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