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Nov 9, 2020

Danish Mink Cull Shelved After Government Botches Covid Response

Morten Buttler, Bloomberg News

BORDING, DENMARK NOVEMBER 07: Minks at farmer Stig Sørensen's estate where all minks must be culled due to a government order on November 7, 2020 in Bording, Denmark. Like many other owners of mink farms, Stig Sørensen has been forced to cull all his 34.000 minks due to a government decision made on Wednesday. Sørensen says that he is sad but also angry because he feels that the government has made an unjustified and unfair decision. His farm is situated so only part of it is within the 7.5 KM zone from an infected farm and none of his mink have tested positive for the coronavirus. Even so, they are regarded as infected and must all be culled. He also feels that he and his colleagues have been let down by the Danish Government, both in terms of handling the culling and slow information about how they will be compensated. He and most in the industry are demanding compensation according to the rules of expropriation, but Sørensen says that so far the government has talked about compensation per culled mink to a price per skin based on farmers’ average price in 2017 and 2018, which was an all-time low. Denmark, the world's largest mink fur producer, is to mass cull some 16 -17 million minks after mutated forms of coronavirus spread to humans. Some 215 mink farms in Jutland region are infected with this type of coronavirus, and therefore a regional lockdown has been announced to curb the infection. (Photo by Ole Jensen/Getty Images) , Photographer: Ole Jensen/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) -- Denmark is shelving a plan to immediately slaughter millions of mink, after opposition lawmakers slammed the government’s handling of the matter.

The proposed cull -- 17 million animals were to be gassed and either burned or thrown into mass graves -- generated global interest last week amid fears that a new Covid mutation that started in Danish mink farms might hamper efforts to develop a vaccine.

But it’s now clear that the Social Democrat administration of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, which initially issued an order to mink farmers, lacks the three-quarters majority needed to pass such emergency legislation through parliament.

Farmers, who had been promised financial incentives by the government to proceed swiftly, were reportedly halting their mass cullings by Monday afternoon. About 2.5 million animals have already been killed, according to broadcaster TV2.

Danish mink farmers and the center-right opposition bloc have characterized the government’s plan to kill Denmark’s entire mink population as an overreaction. Meanwhile, the health ministry on Friday had to walk back earlier comments suggesting the virus had spread to the east of Denmark, which it apparently hasn’t.

The opposition has also latched on to evidence that the most recent case of the mutant variant of Covid-19 -- called cluster 5 -- was identified in Denmark as far back as September.

But the government, which says it has coordinated its plans with the World Health Organization, warns that the latest mutation is just the tip of the iceberg. It says there’s a risk that new and more dangerous variants will develop in mink farms, unless all the animals are culled.

The mink industry, while angered by the proposed cull, signaled it would ultimately have little choice. Tage Pedersen, the chairman of Danish Mink Breeders, said he expects “the closure of the entire industry.”

The government has proposed support measures for mink farmers to ensure workers made redundant continue to receive at least 75% of their monthly wages, or a maximum of 30,000 kroner ($4,800).