Animals & Nature,
Short Takes
The North American Animal Liberation Press Office communicates on behalf of underground activists who perform animal rescue operations. In the last few years, there have been a number of actions to liberate mink from mink farms, which have resulted in tens of thousands of mink being set free. The NAALPO answered questions on behalf of the mink liberators.
Q: Tell us about mink and the fur trade. Why have mink farms been singled out by those who want to liberate animals?
A: From killing more than 5 million defenseless fur-bearing animals per year, to “only” 783,000 last year, fur profiteers are under severe pressure to cease their morally-defunct trade. Because it is so vulnerable, the industry is being selectively and heavily targeted by organizations such as Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT).
Mink on fur farms suffer from the moment they are born until the moment they die. They spend their entire lives trapped in tiny wire cages, crammed by the thousands into squalid sheds, unable to take more than a few steps in any direction. As wild animals, they are deprived of every natural act that is important to them—running, digging, making nests, finding mates, and for the semi-aquatic mink, swimming and diving. They never see direct sunlight, or feel the earth beneath their feet. In the anguish and frustration of extreme confinement, they self-mutilate, frantically pace, gnaw on cage bars, endlessly repeat stereotypic behaviors, and cannibalize cagemates. In the United States, not a single federal law exists to protect animals on fur farms.
Q: What has been done to liberate the mink? What do you hope to accomplish by freeing them?
A: Dozens of fur farms have been directly attacked by underground activists, who down fences and then open cages to free the captive mink, often thousands at a time. The economic damage to a targeted farm often results in it going out of business. The number of active mink farms in the U.S. has declined from several hundred as recently as 10 years ago, to fewer than 100 today. This effective attack on the supply-side of the fur industry, coupled with attacks on the demand-side like campaigns waged by CAFT resulting in more than a dozen designers and retailers denouncing fur, have the capability to end this cruel trade in fur.
Q: The argument is always made that these animals cannot survive on their own and these actions do not truly liberate them. How do you respond?
A: Claims that captive mink are domesticated and cannot survive in the wild are pure industry propaganda. American mink are native to much of the U.S., and have been shown in numerous scientific articles to be perfectly capable of surviving in the wild. As the Animal Liberation Front explains, “Mink are in fact only a few generations removed from their wild cousins and have not yet had their wild instincts bred out. The ‘Mink Rehabilitation Project’ led by convicted A.L.F. liberator Rod Coronado proved this a decade ago. Mink legally purchased from a fur farm were released into the wild and shown through observation to retain natural survival instincts and thrive in the wild after a lifetime in a cage.”
This Q&A, along with dozens more, is published in the special "Animals Issue" of Current Affairs.