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FUR COMMISSION USA PRESS RELEASE, SEPTEMBER 7, 2000
Vandals on Road Trip Attack Farm, Abandon Animals in Broad Daylight
ARLINGTON, SOUTH DAKOTA: Coming hard on the heels of a cattle release and mink farm attack in Iowa, bold vandals continued their multi-state road trip with a daylight trespass on a South Dakota mink farm. Walt Brown's Fur Farm reported 100 to 200 mink released from their pens and abandoned. The vandals trespassed on the farm, opening cages, while the farmer worked, feeding his mink just a few hundred feet away from the criminals.
"The potential for a dangerous confrontation has just escalated," stated Teresa Platt, Executive Director of Fur Commission USA which represents mink and fox farmers in 31 states. "These criminals appear to hold no fear of the law and are completely unconcerned about a confrontation with a farmer. They care even less about the fate of the animals they routinely abandon."
The vandals hit a cattle sale barn in Decorah, Iowa on the evening of Sept. 5, releasing 100 head of cattle, then traveled to the Drewelow Mink Farm near New Hampton, Iowa where they released 14,000 mink, before attacking mink at the Brown farm in Arlington.
Luckily, on the Brown farm, the mink were quickly returned to their pens and the carnivores were fed their nightly meal of leftovers from human food production, byproducts from the beef, fish and dairy industries. However, the breeding records for the released animals are ruined so the animals have lost all value as potential breeding stock. Additionally, Farmer Brown prefers to keep littermates together all year, two animals per pen. With the attack on the farm, the farmer doesn't know which animals come from which litter. Many are now paired with "strangers" which will inevitably result in some fights and loss of life.
Farmers in several states are on full alert and the FBI is investigating the incidents.
See also:
Update on Attack on Iowa Mink Farm FCUSA press release, Sept. 9, 2000.
Over 10,000 Mink Stolen and Abandoned; Local Highway Taking Its Toll FCUSA press release, Sept. 7, 2000.
Press Kit: Safe Farms Support Campaign
For further information contact: Teresa Platt, Executive Director, Fur Commission USA, PMB 506, 826 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118-2698 USA, (619) 575-0139, (619) 272-2467/fax, furfarmers@aol.com, www.furcommission.com. See also Teresa's blog and Facebook.
To take a cyber-tour of a fur farm, visit FCUSA's Fur on Film.
© 1998-2010 Fur Commission USA