Shut Down Mink Farms for Good

Wayne Pacelle

Mink farming must finally come to an end. This is absolutely a humane issue as Wayne Pacelle, president of The Center for a Humane Economy points out HERE on Steve Dale’s Other World on WGN Radio. Mink farms are reminiscent in many ways of puppy mills. The mink aren’t any longer sold to retailers in the U.S., but rather exported to China. But it’s also a human health issue, as mink are about as susceptible to COVID-19 as humans. Variants have even spawned out of mink farms as a result of rampant infections racing through their population.  So, this isn’t only a mink health and welfare issue, it’s a one health human public health issue as well, as Pacelle points out.

The Center for a Humane Economy’s conclusive 102-page report entitled Mink Farming & SARS-CoV-2, by former USDA infectious disease expert Dr. Jim Keen details the public health risk associated with mink farms. In practical terms, there are just two species that contract the virus in large numbers and spill it back to other species – humans and mink. There have been outbreaks of COVID-19 at 450 mink farms in North America and Europe, spawning at least three variants. The environment in which factory farmed mink are raised “maximizes chances for intraspecific aggression, viral infections, and mutations,” according to Dr. Keen.

It’s arguably past time for the Senate to help enact the ban on mink production; contact your U.S. Senator.

Also, Pacelle talked about why spontaneously deciding on a bunny for Easter just isn’t a good idea.