Rush Limbaugh had a phrase for the combination of ignorance and confidence in the activist class: ‘skulls full of mush’. The low-information zealots like those featured here he called ‘environmentalist whackos’. These ones in particular deserve it.
Protesters have hated the use of fur for as long as I can remember. It’s one of those perennial topics that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention, but never quite goes away either.
We’re told it’s because of the animal cruelty. But since most of the activists are also class-warfare types, it’s hard to tell if it’s motivated by care for the animals or envy of people with the trappings of wealth. Stories like this one suggest it might actually be the latter.
Why? Because a radical act of ‘benevolance’ in cutting the fence to a mink farm almost certainly did more harm than the supposed ‘good’ of releasing 1500 mink into the wild.
Roughly 1,500 mink escaped an Oregon farm after a hole was cut in a fence — with an extremist animal rights group linking themselves to the plot to free the creatures, according to authorities and reports.
The scores of mink were intentionally let loose from Cascade Farm in Turner late last Wednesday night as the farm’s manager, his wife, children, and other employees were sleeping, KOIN reported.
The suspected intruders cut a hole in a chain-link fence enclosure, allowing the mink to roam free, the local outlet said.
The Animal Liberation Front — a decentralized group of international animal rights advocates labeled as extremists by the FBI — appears to have taken responsibility for the break-in, the outlet reported. — NYPost
A related story sheds light on the actual process by which the animals are killed before being pelted.
“Every summer we see activists break in to free mink from farms,” he said. “Every November, they’re pelted.”
Farmed mink are typically bred and raised early in the year until around November, when they’re harvested for their pelts, which are sold for luxury fur apparel and other items. The industry generated $28.1 million in pelts in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Mink Survey.
Humanely certified operations use carbon monoxide gas, which immediately renders them unconscious and ensures they die quickly and without pain, according to the trade organization Fur Commission USA. The group estimates there are approximately 275 mink farms in 23 states across the U.S., and has said mink that are released often don’t survive. — KOIN
In light of the fact that Carbon Monoxide is used to render them unconscious before they die, their deaths are thought to be comparatively painless.
Not so for the domesticated mink supposedly ‘freed’ by activists.
They lack the basic survival skills of their wild counterparts. They do not fear natural predators. They do not know how to find safe drinking water, or, most likely, even to swim. Here’s an expert asked about what will happen to mink released after 7000 mink were released in Northumberland in a similar act of sabotage.
Thousands of minks are roaming a section of Northumberland County after they were released from a fur farm early Sunday morning. According to state police, someone broke into a mink farm outside Sunbury, cut holes in the fencing, and opened the cages. Around 7,000 minks escaped.
“In the wild, they’re territorial. They’re solitary. They might need up to four square miles each to eat. And we have just released 7,000 in the same exact space,” said DeeAnn Reader, a professor of biology at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.
Prof. Reeder specializes in mammals and says the minks are now competing for food and may not even know how to hunt.
“Some of them are being hit by cars. Some of them are probably being taken by eagles and owls, which are some of their natural predators. And when population levels are too high, they will kill each other. They’re also going to be competing against wild mink.”
Reeder says this could have a negative impact on our ecosystem. Any small animals could be at risk. — WNEP
Other sources have pointed to starvation, dehydration, disease, infection, cars, dogs, exposure and simple stress. At least half are expected to die within the first 24-48 hours. The number keeps climbing after that.
He’s not kidding about that ecological damage, either. The UK has problems of its own because of non-native mink being released into the wild there wreaking havoc in the local habitats.
American mink were brought to the UK in the early 20th century for fur farming. However, escapees and deliberate releases led to feral populations establishing themselves. Mink belong to the Mustelidae family, along with weasels, otters, and ferrets. Mink are sleek, carnivorous, solitary animals with few natural predators, and pose a significant threat to our native wildlife, in particular, our humble water voles.
A threat to native wildlife
The devastating impact of mink on water voles in Britain is undeniable, with water voles experiencing a staggering 90% population decline by the turn of the millennium. Habitat loss played a role, but the pressure from mink predation dealt the most severe blow to our favourite riverside rodent. Water voles were made famous by Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, where the main character, “Ratty”, was actually a water vole. — Peoples’ Trust For Endangered Species
It really doesn’t matter whether their rationale is ‘ecological’ or ‘care for the suffering mink’, the results of such vandalism really don’t line up with the things these radicals claim to care about.
Unless, like so many other of the radical groups, it’s really just an excuse to identify valid targets that can whet the appetites of the revolutionary fervor until the time more serious violent acts of revolution are called upon….?
If it is that cynical, it would hardly be the first time.
