“Daunting and disturbing” scene greets Humane Society at U.S. fur farm

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An Ontario fur auction house says they have no connection to an American fur and urine farm where hundreds of animals, such as coyotes and foxes, were kept in “disturbing” conditions.

The Humane Society said in a news release on Tuesday that it rescued 250 animals from the Grand River Fur Exchange, a farm in the township of Hartsgrove, Ohio, roughly a one-hour drive from Cleveland. The animals were kept for their fur as well as their urine. (Coyote urine can be “used, or marketed, for dubious purposes, including to deter deer from gardens,” the Humane Society said.)

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“Our rescuers are calling this one of the most horrific situations they have ever seen,” according to president and CEO of the U.S. Humane Society Kitty Block, who called the farm an “abysmal operation.”

Documents found at the property indicated that the farm’s owner sold pelts to Fur Harvesters Auction Inc., a fur auction house located in Ontario. It is the last such one in North America, the Humane Society said.

However, the auction house’s CEO Mark Downey denied ties to the Ohio farm.

We have no knowledge of a Grand River Fur Exchange ever consigning fur through our facility

Mark Downey

“Fur Harvesters Auction Inc of North Bay Ontario Canada is a company owned and operated through 50/50 ownership of native and non native trappers. We have no knowledge of a Grand River Fur Exchange ever consigning fur through our facility,” Downey told the National Post in an emailed statement.

“It seems this operation was a fur farm raising animals for pets, urine collecting etc. Our operation is trapper owned and only licensed certified trappers are permitted to consign furs through this auction house.”

On the Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. website, sale dates are scheduled for March and June.

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“The operation of fur farming is regulated through the Department of Agriculture in both Canada and the United States,” said Downey.

Trapping animals is legal in every Canadian province and territory, both recreationally and commercially, according to not-for-profit animal advocacy group Animal Justice. Industrial fur farming is also legal in the country.

“Despite disappearing markets and souring public opinion, Canadian fur farms are kept afloat by substantial government subsidies,” the group said online. “They also benefit from woefully lax regulations. In most provinces, there are no mandatory animal welfare standards for animals raised and killed on fur farms.”

In the United States, the fur farm industry is “so unregulated” and “likes to tout transparency and high standards without any oversight or regulation,” the Humane Society said.

Conversely, the Fur Commission USA, a non-profit association representing U.S. mink farmers, insists online that “like other livestock operations, fur farming is governed by local, national and sometimes international regulations.”

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“As with all livestock producers, fur farmers receive information and assistance from licensed veterinarians and agricultural extension officers, as well as professional associations,” the commission says.

The Grand River Fur Exchange was licensed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Humane Society said, but it accused the state of not having “standards of care for fur farms or their slaughter practices.”

The Humane Society was alerted to the abuses at the Ohio farm earlier this month, when the local county’s commissioner’s office requested their help following the death of the farm’s owner in December 2024.

Upon arrival, Block said, the team called the scene “daunting and disturbing.”

“Foxes, raccoons, wolf-dog hybrids, skunks, opossums and coyotes were confined in filthy wire-bottom cages with little to no protection from the frigid conditions,” said Block.

Some animals were missing body parts and had injuries. More than 25 animals were found dead, covered in snow. The Humane Society had to euthanize animals with severe injuries, illnesses or ones that could not be safely rehabilitated.

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The Humane Society said that some of the animals were bred in captivity while others were captured from the wild.

“In 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined and prohibited the operator of this place from engaging in the breeding and sale of wild animals, yet the facility continued to do so, apparently without further USDA enforcement,” per the organization.

The hundreds of rescued animals that were removed from the property are now being given a new chance at life. They have been relocated to wildlife rehabbers or sanctuaries.

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