This is one of the many sheds at the Conrad Mink Farm in Keota, Iowa.
Twelve years ago today, I parked my car in a nearby cornfield and then liberated over 500 mink from Conrad.
I’ve been on nearly a hundred fur farms. All are abhorrent, every single one a desecration of nature.
This is still the most haunting fur farm I’ve ever seen. To this day, I have nightmares about this place. I saw mink crammed four to a cage. Wild animals stacked on top of each other, trying desperately to escape.
After opening hundreds of cages and watching nearly 550 mink escape the property to begin new lives, it was time to leave for another fur farm.
I jogged back to my vehicle. A mink followed me. She was mutilated and I knew she wasn’t going to make it. She stood at my feet and stared up at me. This was the moment I realized I was going to prison. I made a promise to her that I would do everything I possibly could to destroy the fur industry. I would not stop raiding fur farms until I was captured and caged myself.
This farm haunted me so much that I returned a few weeks later intending to open every cage and hopefully shut them down. I set off the newly-installed motion alarms and I was forced to flee.
As the fur industry approaches collapse, I have never regretted or rescinded my promise. And with tens of thousands of animals liberated from fur farms in the years since, many more are making the same promise I did. Fur farmers will never experience another peaceful killing season again.