Sponsors (5)
The bill eliminates mink farming nationwide to reduce disease risk, environmental harms, and animal suffering while providing federal buyouts, but it imposes significant financial losses, compliance costs, and enforcement risks on fur-farm owners and raises taxpayer spending and budget-transparency concerns.
Mink farm workers, fur-farm operators, and nearby rural communities: ending mink farming within one year and requiring humane, AVMA-consistent euthanasia for terminated animals reduces zoonotic disease risk and environmental harms and limits animal suffering.
Current mink-farm owners and operators: federal buyout payments (funded by a $100 million Treasury transfer available until expended) provide prompt compensation covering compliance costs and the fair-market value of mink-farming assets (excluding land), helping displaced small businesses transition.
Small-business owners, farmers, and state regulators: the law clarifies which animals, products, and operations are covered and explicitly includes territories and DC while allowing states and localities to adopt stricter protections, reducing regulatory uncertainty and enabling consistent application across jurisdictions.
Mink farm owners and small fur-farm businesses: face loss of income and likely business closures from a nationwide ban within a year, plus heavy enforcement exposure (fines up to $10,000 per day for continuing operations) and substantial one-time compliance costs to meet termination requirements.
Taxpayers and deficit-conscious households: the program uses a $100 million Treasury transfer and the Act is excluded from PAYGO scorecards, reducing budget transparency and increasing the risk that the measure adds to the deficit without automatic offsets.
Owners who accept buyouts: permanently forfeit the ability to resume fur farming on easement areas, and because payments exclude land value, many owners (especially with specialized improvements or limited alternative uses) may be undercompensated.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Phases out and bans mink farming (1 year), requires AVMA-acceptable euthanasia within 90 days, imposes penalties, and funds a USDA compensation program with a $100M transfer.
Introduced March 18, 2025 by Adriano J. Espaillat · Last progress March 18, 2025
Prohibits farming mink in the United States and requires that any mink terminated within 90 days be euthanized using methods that meet federal and AVMA humane-euthanasia standards. Owners who stop farming mink after the one-year ban can be paid for eligible costs and the market value of the mink-farming portion of their operation (not including land) through a USDA program funded by a $100 million transfer; recipients must not resume fur farming and must grant a permanent easement forbidding future fur farming. Civil penalties apply for continued mink farming and for inhumane termination methods. The Act also directs that its budgetary effects be excluded from routine PAYGO scorecards.