Infected mink to be dug up and burned over fears of mutant strain.
Infected mink to be dug up and burned over fears of mutant strain.
COPENHAGEN — Flemming Emil Hansen
The culling of Denmark’s mink population took another unpleasant turn as a majority of parties in parliament agreed to dig up millions of rotting carcasses to safeguard groundwater, streams and lakes from pollution.
The exhumation will not start until May of next year to ensure it will be safe to handle the COVID-19 infected mink, Rasmus Prehn, Minister of Food, Fish and Agriculture, said in a Dec. 20 press statement.
The deal came after private organizations and locals voiced their concerns about the mass graves set up after the order to cull 15.4 million minks in the country due to large outbreaks of COVID-19 in and around mink farms.
Denmark is the world’s biggest producer of mink fur. China and Hong Kong are its main markets.
The rushed large-scale culling operation was decided after a mutation of the novel coronavirus, known as Cluster 5, had been detected in Danish mink and 12 humans in the western part of Denmark, where the mink farms are most concentrated.
Fearing the new strain could have implications for the development and efficacy of vaccines, the center-left Danish government ordered all mink to be culled and the mink farming industry closed down industry until at least the end of 2021.
Prehn, a Social Democrat, described the agreement as an early Christmas present.
The mink culling operation has been a highly contentious political issue in Denmark because of the severe implications to the country’s fur industry and farmers. The government jumped the gun in early November by ordering it without the necessary legislation.
The deal to have 4 million dead mink dug up again was a slim victory agreed on by a narrow, center-left majority without any members of the opposition.
The minister said the decision to postpone the exhumation for several months was taken due to the risk of catching COVID-19 from the dead animals and is supported by an environmental assessment. The local groundwater, streams and lakes are unaffected for the time being.
“I fully understand the local population would rather see the mink out of the ground today than tomorrow, but I have full faith in the environmental authorities,” Prehn said. “Given that the mink can still transmit COVID-19, the gain of digging them up a few months earlier does not match the risk of doing so.”
The mink were buried in shallow mass graves in army training terrain in the northern part of Jutland, a peninsula that shares a border with Germany. Incineration plants ran out of capacity when the killing was at its height last month.
At the time, locals complained of the near vicinity of freshwater reserves and residential areas. One mass-grave was based 437 yards from a local swimming lake, and carcasses started resurfacing out of the shallow graves in some places.
The fur and farming industries, as well as political opposition, have criticized the government for being too heavy-handed and moving too fast in dealing with the issue.
Prehn’s predecessor, Mogens Jensen, resigned on Nov. 18 after intense pressure, given his role in the decision to move ahead with the forced culling without securing a legal mandate first. In early December, the government agreed to launch a parliamentary probe into the process.
Prehn declared himself a “happy minister” when announcing the deal. He added the dug up mink will be transferred to incineration plants for disposal. The operation is expected to conclude by mid-July.
(Edited by Carlin Becker and Fern Siegel)
