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MINKS

Danish authorities cull 126 minks at illegal fur farm

Denmark’s Veterinary and Food Administration (Fødevarestyrelsen) on Wednesday put down 126 minks which were being bred at a North Jutland farm in breach of a current ban on the industry.

Published: 15 December 2021 14:25 CET
A 2020 file photo of a Danish mink farm. Authorities on December 15th culled 126 mink after they were discovered in breach of a current Covid-19-related ban on the fur trade.
A 2020 file photo of a Danish mink farm. Authorities on December 15th culled 126 mink after they were discovered in breach of a current Covid-19-related ban on the fur trade. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Staff from the authority put down each of the animals with an injection, the agency confirmed in a statement.

The farm’s owner has been reported to police.

Mink breeding for the fur trade has been illegal in Denmark since December 29th last year, when a law was passed against it following a mass culling of the animals and the shuttering of the industry due to concerns related to Covid-19 transmission in minks.

The government order to cull the animals was later found to have no legal basis and is currently being investigated by a special commission.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s prime minister faces inquiry over decision to cull minks

Due to the law, it is not legal to own more than five minks.

A station officer at Central and West Jutland police confirmed that animals had been found at the farm.

“The Veterinary and Food Administration came to us with a complaint,” said the officer, Christian Toftemark.

The agency was informed via an anonymous tip. The police and an investigative unit from the food agency subsequently visited seven former mink farm sites in the area. The 126 minks were discovered at one of the farms.

“The minks we found today were being kept in normal mink cages. It is therefore our assessment that the minks were being kept for commercial purposes and therefore illegally. The case has therefore been referred to police for further investigation,” the head of the Veterinary and Food Administration investigative unit, Majbritt Birkmose, said in a press statement.

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MINKS

Denmark ejects mink breeders from compensation committees 

Mink fur breeders in Denmark will no longer influence the amount paid out in compensation to fellow breeders whose farms were closed during the Covid pandemic, the government has said.

Published: 12 April 2024 13:20 CEST
Denmark ejects mink breeders from compensation committees 

Mink fur breeders will no longer participate on committees which decide how much compensation to award other mink breeders, agriculture minister Jacob Jensen confirmed to broadcaster DR on Thursday.

The government set aside billions of kroner for compensation to mink breeders after ordering all fur farm minks be destroyed in late 2020, over concerns related to Covid-19 mutations in the animals. The order to destroy the minks was later found to be illegal in a major scandal for the government.

Recent reports by media Zetland have described how the breeders have gained influence over the compensation through their presence on the committees.

“We don’t think there should be direct representation on the commissions,” Jensen told DR.

READ ALSO: Danish mink fur breeders received ‘too much compensation’

The change in practice will require a formal agreement between the government and the opposition parties who agreed to the mink breeder compensation programme, but this is not expected to present an obstacle.

A review of 27 compensation cases by Zetland found that mink fur breeders had the highest representation of any professional group involved in the commissions, whose remit is to decide the amount to award individual breeders in compensation.

Not including independent chairpersons, 7 out of 10 commission members were put up by either the mink fur industry or Landbrug & Fødevarer, the interest organisation for the agriculture sector. Some commission members are waiting for their own claims to be resolved, Zetland reported.

Jensen said he wanted the commissions to have a “better composition”.

That could include judges, economists or others who “have knowledge of the value of property,” he said.

In comments to newswire Ritzau, the chairperson of mink fur interest organisation Kopenhagen Fur, Tage Pedersen, said his “first thought is it’s a shame, because I think we had a good system”.

Changing the existing system means further delays for fur breeders awaiting compensation, while it is the farmers themselves who are in the best position to evaluate the value of a farm, he noted.

“But I also have say that me and my family and all other mink breeders and their families have been harassed so much over the last eight days that we can’t take it anymore. So actually I am also relieved,” he said.

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