FBI to Investigate Wisconsin Animal Release

Sometime during the early morning hours of Thursday, August 27, vandals cut 30 to 40 feet of fencing and released about 3,000 domesticated mink from their cages at Brown's Mink Farm in Beloit, Wisconsin. Neighbors have been arriving all morning to help with the mink round-up.

This crime against fur farms is the fourth in the last week. Vandals hit a farm in Minnesota and two in Iowa last week, damaging property and releasing animals. Again, thanks to the efforts of neighbors the loss of animal life was kept to a minimum.

The damages on the Brown farm will be over $10,000 and under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, escalate this raid to a federal crime. The FBI has been called in to investigate.

"Animal extremists have joined up with criminals and are hitting farms, destroying property and causing the deaths of domesticated animals in the most callous manner," stated Teresa Platt, executive director of Fur Commission USA, which represents over 600 U.S.-based fur farmers.

Fur farmers from Canada and the United States are offering a reward fund of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of these dangerous people. Fur farmers and others involved in resource-based industry have asked governments to investigate the escalation of terrorists incidents under the guise of 'saving the planet', or eco-terrorism." Congress held the first hearings on this issue June 9 in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

In the meantime, animals are still missing and they will be playing havoc with local pets and wildlife, getting run over by cars and dying of stress and starvation, unless they are rounded up and returned to their cages. Anyone seeing a lost mink, please call (619) 575-0139.

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