40,000 minks released from Minnesota fur farm by animal rights activists

Minks are native to Minnesota, but wildlife officials worry that these formerly captive minks will have trouble surviving in the outside world. Additionally, the sudden appearance of 40,000 minks, which feast on frogs, fish, ducks and worms, to the area could have negative effects on the local wildlife.

Lang Farms believes anywhere between 30,000 to 40,000 minks are now traipsing across the Midwest state, an estimated $750,000 loss for the farm.

As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Some forward thinking youths thought that they would save the lives of 10,000's of minks that were destined for the slaughterhouse. However, according to the experts, one of two things will happen. The animals raised in captivity will not be able to survive in the wild and so will die slowly, eventually starving to death if not picked off by predators earlier than that. Or they will release a killing frenzy on the local fauna. Minks are, after all, in the weasel family and that family tends to be pretty vicious.

link

Doing a little further digging, the massacre has begun:

As of midafternoon Tuesday, the farm's recovery effort has collected 5,500 of the minks, said Chief Sheriff's Deputy Jon Lentz.

"The vast majority are expiring shortly after being recovered," Lentz said. "It may be due to stress, but the owners are not certain."

Lentz said that no one has contacted the Sheriff's Office claiming responsibility.

There's a shocker, no one is claiming responsibility for destroying $750,000 worth of someone else' s property or for killing thousands of animals.

Link to second source

I do have some sympathy for the fate of such animals. As a society we are much crueler in our production of meat than is necessary. I also would never buy a mink coat for anyone. However, doing such a thing without thinking of the consequences is not defensible. It reminds me of a book I read when I was a lad, "Plague Dogs". It was written by the same author who wrote "Watership Down" which was one of my favorites as a youth.

Bottom line, our meat industry as it stands can be seen as the result of allowing the right to be in too much control, the coopting of the oversight of business by the businesses themselves. This story can be what happens when the extreme left it allowed to function. This is why I consider myself a radical centrist.

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

Yes, it is far better to let the 40,000 minks starve, drown, get hit by a car or get eaten by another larger animal.


If I were an leftist animal loving know it all animal rights group, I would start to try to change people's mind about using mink products. (good luck with that)

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

This is what happens when you're unable to think beyond your emotions.

A problem that is very prevalent among the extreme left.

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

I have to agree. However, a problem the extreme right faces is that they eliminate emotion all together.

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

Ughh animal rights activists.....

Why doesn't somebody release THEM into the wild with no food and supplies. Say the Brazilian rainforest or Antarctica.

Being born and raised on a farm, I love animals too. (They're delicious ) But I also believe that every animal has the right to a happy stress free existence, whether it is destined for the dinner plate or born to live it's life in the wild.

Setting a bunch of captive animals free is just dumb and bound to cause way more unforseen problems than just getting a farmer to change the way he does things to make sure they are well looked after.

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

Very true as well.. that's why we should be calling out the extremes, so we can seperate from them and move closer to the middle.

I have a soft spot for animal rights people, I think it's an important first step for some.

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

That's an excellent opportunity for some industrious youths with a bucket of body traps and drowning sets to make some decent summer money and learn how to dress and tan mink hides. Should fetch around $20 a mink if properly tanned, maybe more depending on the coat color.

a reply to: TobyFlenderson

I wonder what the "leftists" think about this.?

originally posted by: wheresthebody
I have a soft spot for animal rights people, I think it's an important first step for some.

First step to starvation and freezing in the winter, perhaps.

originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

I have to agree. However, a problem the extreme right faces is that they eliminate emotion all together.

That's not true, but go ahead and make yourself feel better by telling yourself it is.

originally posted by: TobyFlenderson
a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

I have to agree. However, a problem the extreme right faces is that they eliminate emotion all together.

No, we eliminate illogical emotion from logical decisions. There's a huge difference.

Good Lord, what idiots!

They've effectively signed these animals death warrants in a more inhumane way than they were going to have. I'm not a fan of Mink farms, but Jeebus! 40,000 tiny predators released at once would devastate any eco-system assuming they knew how to hunt, which they don't.

I sincerely hope they get caught and hauled up not just on theft, trespassing, but animal cruelty charges as well.

Don't these idiots know a mink can easily kill a cat, song birds, and chickens? Hopefully locals have their pets under lockdown for the duration. Children as well, Minks look too much like ferrets for little kids to know the difference.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: TobyFlenderson

That's an excellent opportunity for some industrious youths with a bucket of body traps and drowning sets to make some decent summer money and learn how to dress and tan mink hides. Should fetch around $20 a mink if properly tanned, maybe more depending on the coat color.

That's all they are pulling in now fully processed?
When I was 12 I could get $20 just dropping the carcass on the floor!
I miss the good ole days.....

Has any of the escaped minks been stolen yet ?

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: TobyFlenderson

That's an excellent opportunity for some industrious youths with a bucket of body traps and drowning sets to make some decent summer money and learn how to dress and tan mink hides. Should fetch around $20 a mink if properly tanned, maybe more depending on the coat color.

That's all they are pulling in now fully processed?
When I was 12 I could get $20 just dropping the carcass on the floor!
I miss the good ole days.....

Yeah, fur prices have never rebounded from the 2007 recession. As a kid in NM, we didn't have much for mink, but I was getting $25 a hide for coyotes, plus the county's $10 bounty on the front feet with dew claw, and had a tourist trap that would pay me another $10 for skulls. Not a bad return on a 264 Win Mag bullet that cost my old man about $0.10 to reload. I also was getting $10 a skunk for trapped skunk furs that hadn't experienced scent gland explosion and actually pulled in $30 apiece for the rare raccoon I could trap.

When/if the prices ever come back up, I'll probably pick up trapping with my kids up here in AK. It's a really rewarding hobby that teaches kids a lot about reading an environment plus the life skills they learn from that and from prepping the hides.

a reply to: Caver78

No kidding. Even if these were fully competent to live in the wild, they'd quickly eat out the local food supply and many would starve to death anyhow.

Whoever these idiots were who released them should be charged with cruelty. They did none of them any favors.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: TobyFlenderson

That's an excellent opportunity for some industrious youths with a bucket of body traps and drowning sets to make some decent summer money and learn how to dress and tan mink hides. Should fetch around $20 a mink if properly tanned, maybe more depending on the coat color.

That's all they are pulling in now fully processed?
When I was 12 I could get $20 just dropping the carcass on the floor!
I miss the good ole days.....

Yeah, fur prices have never rebounded from the 2007 recession. As a kid in NM, we didn't have much for mink, but I was getting $25 a hide for coyotes, plus the county's $10 bounty on the front feet with dew claw, and had a tourist trap that would pay me another $10 for skulls. Not a bad return on a 264 Win Mag bullet that cost my old man about $0.10 to reload. I also was getting $10 a skunk for trapped skunk furs that hadn't experienced scent gland explosion and actually pulled in $30 apiece for the rare raccoon I could trap.

When/if the prices ever come back up, I'll probably pick up trapping with my kids up here in AK. It's a really rewarding hobby that teaches kids a lot about reading an environment plus the life skills they learn from that and from prepping the hides.

My neighbor owned a fur shed when I was a kid and he gave me a job after school paying me five cents a hide scraping muskrat furs. One of the best experiences of my childhood and he treated me good and taught me how to trap raccoons. Nothing like being 12 years old, getting up a 4:30 am to go check that 3mile trapline in the dead of winter. What I would give to be able to relive those days.......

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

Amen

a reply to: ketsuko

My perspective. It's not about making myself feel better. I'm a big boy. My politics are based on my experience, 50 years thereof, and not about living in a fantasy world. But if that makes you feel better, well have at it.