Michael Whelan, Executive Director at Fur Commission USA
Fur Commission USA (541) 595-8568 is offering $10,000 and Tri-County Crime Stoppers is offer $1,000 for information about how more than $750,000 worth of mink were released from Lang Farms near Eden Valley
Gulf News
AP
Eden Valley, Minnesota: A fur trade organisation is among two groups offering a total of $11,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspects in the release of about 38,000 mink from a Minnesota farm that led to the death of thousands of the animals.
The Star Tribune reports that Fur Commission USA is offering $10,000 and Tri-County Crime Stoppers is offer $1,000 for information about how more than $750,000 worth of mink were released from Lang Farms near Eden Valley earlier this week.
Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson has said he believes animal rights activists released the mink.
Thousands of the mink have died from heat, stress and dehydration, said Fur Commission USA Executive Director Michael Whelan. Most of the animals that died were young and hadn’t yet been weaned from their mothers.
The domesticated animals aren’t equipped to live outside the farm environment where they receive food and water daily, he said.
Many of the animals that survived continue to suffer from dehydration and stress. Whelan said he expects more will die within the coming weeks.
“Anyone who thinks they are helping the animals by doing this are severely misinformed,” Whelan said. “This is a crime against the animals as much as against the Lang family.”
The Lang family has been raising mink for four generations.
The crime falls under the Federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act statute and is being investigated by the Stearns County Sheriff’s office and the FBI, Whelan said.
Residents who spot mink running loose in the area are warned not to approach them. Instead residents are encouraged to notify Lang Farms so an experienced mink handler can recapture the animal.
[Imprisoned in cages for life, or mercilessly trapped with painful leghold traps in the wild, fur-bearing animals killed to make unnecessary fashion statements are forced to endure intensive confinement, compared to the miles of territory these still-wild animals would enjoy in their natural state. The natural instincts of these captive animals are completely frustrated; self-mutilation, sickness, infection, poor sanitation and the sheer stress of confinement lead animals in captivity to premature death. When they do survive, animals of sufficient size are killed by anal electrocution or gassing, then skinned. In addition to liberating the wild animals destined for a certain, painful and agonizing death, another goal of liberationists is to cause economic damage to fur retailers and farms; dozens of stores and fur farming operations have seen economic ruin since “Operation Bite Back” began by the Animal Liberation Front in the 1990s.
Those concerned with the truth should not be misled by claims of those with economic interests, for instance ridiculous stories that the animals released are domesticated and unable to survive in the wild, or that the animals voluntarily returned to their cages, or that they froze to death or starved within hours, or were immediately run over by automobiles or eaten by household pets.
The Animal Liberation Front and other anonymous activists utilize economic sabotage in addition to the direct liberation of animals from conditions of abuse and imprisonment to halt needless animal suffering. By making it more expensive to trade in the lives of innocent, sentient beings, they maintain the atrocities against our brothers and sisters are likely to occur in smaller numbers; their goal is to abolish the exploitation, imprisonment, torture and killing of innocent, non-human animals. A copy of the Final Nail, a listing of known fur farms in North America, is available here.]