From Press Officer Joseph Buddenberg:
I recently visited the now-abandoned Rykola Mink Farm in Ebensburg, PA. It was a heavy and surreal feeling.
My last visit here was twelve years ago.
For 54 years, George Rykola murdered thousands of mink every year with impunity. His farm had never been visited by the Animal Liberation Front.
It was the fifth fur farm from which I freed animals that summer. I have visited countless mink farms but this one is forever etched into my memory.
There was the feral mink who attempted to bite through my gloved hand when I reached for her cage, having only known the abusive hands of George Rykola.
And there was the mink who screeched so loudly when I unlatched the cage she was destined to die in. The sound will tear your soul apart.
I ran off the property with 1,000 mink at my feet. They escaped the property to establish new lives in the surrounding wilderness. This was all done in less than twenty minutes.
I’ll never forget the sight of hundreds of mink escaping into the woods, experiencing their first moments of freedom and joy, feeling the earth beneath their feet as they began their new lives.
In the media, fur industry officials downplayed the number of liberated animals and hoped to dissuade others with their lies about “domestic mink.” The same lies will persist until we destroy this industry.
Hundreds of animals were never recaptured and lived out the rest of their lives with dignity.
At the time, there were at least 18 fur farms in Pennsylvania. Today, there are only two.
Illegal direct action works.