1,000 mink released from Jutland farm

Around 1,000 mink were released from a mink farm in southern Jutland on Saturday, area police reported.

 

Police say that unknown perpetrators entered the mink farm near the southwestern Jutland town of Ølgod and opened the cages holding the animals. A hole was also made in the farm’s surrounding fence to allow the minks to escape.

 

“The mink aren’t used to fending for themselves, they become stressed and many of them starve to death while others get run over,” a press release from the police stated. “On top of that, mink are foreign animals that we don’t want in the Danish nature.”

 

Area mink farmers have been called in to round up as many as the loose animals as possible.

 

Denmark is the world’s leading producer of mink pelts. The roughly 2,000 fur farms in Denmark produce around 14 million mink skins each year. Danish mink skins are particularly popular with Chinese customers and account for one third of all Danish exports to China.

 

The Danish Agriculture and Food Council (Landbrug & Fødevarer) estimates that the mink industry has an annual export value of 3.7 billion kroner ($680 million).