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As people around the world applaud the results of late-stage trials of a potentially breakthrough COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, a disturbing development has emerged on the pandemic front – a mutated strain of coronavirus found on farms of mink in Denmark.
Mink are bred and killed for their fur all over the world, including the United States, Denmark, Argentina, China, Spain, and Poland.
Denmark has already slaughtered 10 million mink fearing new outbreaks of COVID-19, and the UK Minister of Health has urged countries to rethink mink farming in the face of the threat (UK has already banned the practice).
Now calls to slaughter healthy mink are drawing criticism from farmers – and renewing demands from animal rights groups for the global fur industry to be shut down once and for all.
Here’s what you need to know.
Take a break for a second. Can Animals Get COVID-19?
Yes. So far, COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus, has been found in a small number of pets like cats and dogs, as well as lions and tigers at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. It has also been found in mink, which appears to be particularly vulnerable to catching the virus.
Mink are bred for their fur around the world [File: Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters]Mink are super cute, but what exactly are they?
Mink are solitary mammals about the size of a house cat. If you want to get some super science, these are carnivorous mustelids – carnivorous members of the weasel family, which also includes ferrets, skunks, otters, anglers, martens, and wolverines.
Where are they found in nature?
Mink live in North America and Europe. The wild European mink is considered critically endangered on the Red List of Endangered Species maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
In the wild, mink swim and can travel long distances, and male mink can roam thousands of acres of wetlands. Female minks give birth to litters of one to eight babies called kits.
What is their life like on the farms?
When minks are raised for their fur, they are kept nearby, making them vulnerable to the spread of disease.
“COVID-19 first infected humans through close contact with captive animals in live animal markets, which are similar to the unsanitary conditions on fur farms where minks are confined in wire cages and often stacked on top of each other, allowing disease to easily spread through urine, feces, pus and blood, ”Emily Raap, a campaign generalist for the animal rights group People, told Al Jazeera. for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Isn’t there a “free” mink?
According to PETA, minks are solitary and territorial animals that would become aggressive if kept in groups in an enclosed space where they were allowed to roam freely.
So how long do farmed mink live until they reach their end?
Some female mink are raised for years as breeders, but most mink are killed between six and eight months.
How are they killed?
You might find the answer disturbing, but since you asked for it …
Poisoning, electrocution, clubbing and breaking the neck are all ways that fur breeders kill mink without damaging their skin, according to PETA investigations.
Faux fur has increasingly replaced animal fur on runways and in stores due to concerns about animal cruelty [File: Bloomberg]I’m sorry I asked. How big is an industry?
The world production of mink skins is around 45 million skins per year. The United States produced 2.7 million pelts in 2019 at a value of $ 59.2 million, down 30% from $ 84.3 million the previous year.
Mink fur is used in clothing, accessories and some false eyelashes, and mink oil is used in cosmetic and medical products and as a treatment on leather goods.
How did mink develop COVID-19?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that mink on farms in Utah and Wisconsin caught the coronavirus from human farm workers who had been exposed. In Michigan, it is still unclear how the mink got sick.
Once infected, minks exhibit symptoms similar to those of humans with respect to their respiratory and gastrointestinal tract. In minks, the coronavirus is also just as contagious. While Denmark only had three infected mink farms in June, by November the virus had spread to more than 200, prompting the killing of all farmed mink.
About 15,000 mink have died from COVID-19 in the United States so far.
Can mink transmit the coronavirus to humans?
This is what researchers are working to find out. Denmark reported 214 cases of mink-linked COVID-19 earlier this month, including 12 people at five mink farms who had been infected with a mutated strain of the virus.
But at the nine farms with infected mink in Utah, “everything still suggests a one-way trip from people to minks,” Dean Taylor, Utah state veterinarian, told Reuters.
United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is currently no evidence animals play a significant role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 [the coronavirus] to humans, “according to reports from mink farms in the Netherlands,” there is a possibility of spreading SARS-CoV-2 from mink to humans. “
Mink from some Danish farms have been culled over COVID-19 concerns [File: Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters].So what will happen to the mink?
So far, the United States is quarantining farms with infected animals, while other countries are requiring mink to be slaughtered.
What about the mink industry?
The COVID-19 crisis could accelerate the end of mink farming in some countries.
In Denmark, farmers have said the reform is the end of the mink industry.
In the Netherlands, the sector is set to be phased out by 2024, but that timeline has been accelerated for some producers this year after more than 100 of them were ordered to close their mink farms by March 2021.
France has decided to ban mink farming from 2025. And in the United States, the state of California has banned the sale of fur from 2023.
Wasn’t fur already out of fashion anyway?
Yes. Big fashion brands like Prada, Coach, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein and Macy’s – among others – have pledged not to use fur in their products.
Will COVID make fur even more old-fashioned?
Animal rights activists like Raap hope worries about COVID-19 will help hasten the end of fur farming.
“PETA will continue to push everyone around forever until fur is banned,” Raap said. “The goal is always that we don’t need to breed and kill animals. There is absolutely no reason for this. And again, everyone can make a difference today by not supporting these cruel industries that exploit animals.
Nice article, but I think these are mink, not mink.
According to the Collins dictionary, the plural can be vison or visons, smartypants.
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