Thousands of mink in dash for freedom in Jutland

For the second time in under a week, a mink farm in Jutland has been attacked by animal rights activists, releasing some 3,000 of the animals into the wild.

The discovery was made by a food delivery driver who raised the alarm at the farm in Western Jutland’s Klosterhede Plantation. Hunters and farmers from the region were called to capture or destroy the escapees.

According to news source Politiken, local police claimed that aside from releasing the mink from their cages, surrounding fences were also damaged in order to allow the animals to flee to freedom. This is the second such incident in the area following the release of over 6,000 mink last week from a farm near Sondervig. While most of those mink have been recaptured, as many as 3,000 may have to be put down. The farms tend to find appropriate companions for individual minks to share a cage with, but on escaping to the wild the couples are inevitably broken up becoming increasingly aggressive leading to bitter infighting.

Investigations continue into eye witness sightings of a man seen to be running from the Holstebro Minkfodercentral factory to a nearby vehilce having apparently opened a silo tap releasing several tons of feed.

Sander Jacobsen of the Danish Fur Breeder Association claimed the release could result in an ecological disaster for the local area. ”The mink will try to survive and simply vacuum the area of all amphibians and small birds, and since they are not very good at surviving in this way for longer periods, they will die,” Jacobsen said.

According to The Danish Forest and Nature Agency the actions were likely to cause more damage than good. ”This type of crime is frustrating and silly. The mink are the ones that suffer, but it also affects the balance in the surrounding environment,” Consultant Jens Henrik Jakobsen claimed.

Sander Jacobsen believes the actions were in relation to an upcoming television documentary on mink farming. ”This resembles an orchestrated campaign in which extremists will stop at