Scandal in Denmark: Mink farming permitted again

After the state health institute SSI assessed the risk of a significantly reduced farming operation to public health as low, a decision was made to allow a temporary ban on mink farming to expire at the end of the year, the Danish Ministry of Food announced.

However, some infection control measures would be necessary, which would be discussed with the breeders.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had announced in November 2020 that all minks in Denmark — more than 15 million animals — were to be killed. The radical step was justified on the grounds that the coronavirus had mutated in the animals and had been transmitted to humans.

The mass culling had triggered a major debate in the country. As it later emerged, the legal basis for the killings had been lacking — it had to be created retroactively. The then Minister of Food, Mogens Jensen, resigned in the wake of the controversy. Mink keeping was banned and the owners were compensated. Until that point, the animals had been bred for fur production, in which Denmark had been one of the world market leaders.

It was not only the hasty killing of the minks that went badly wrong in Denmark at the time. The carcasses, hastily buried in pits, threatened to contaminate groundwater. In some cases they were also not buried deeply enough, causing decomposition gases to push the dead animals back out of the ground.

The government had then asked the SSI in the spring of that year to assess the risk of resuming mink keeping for human health from 1 January 2023. The institute had determined in May that the risk of a new, concerning coronavirus variant emerging through a limited return to mink farming in Denmark was limited.

Animal welfare organisations hold an entirely different view. As a representative statement, the leadership of Animal Protection Denmark stated: “”There are absolutely no good reasons to reopen large mink farms where millions of animals are crammed into small wire cages until they are killed for their fur. – This is bad for the animals, the environment and the climate.“

Indeed, with this decision Denmark is acting completely against the trend. Just last Thursday, for example, Latvia announced a complete ban on mink farming from 2028