"It has been a really wonderful way of life," says Bernice Monteleone who, with her husband, has raised minks for fur in the Illinois town of Elgin for more than 60 years. "We've raised six kids here and a bunch of grandkids."
But a bill in the Illinois legislature has mink farmers as nervous as, well, the minks about to become pelts. The law is meant to address the well documented role of minks in zoonotic pandemics like Covid and the ongoing bird flu (H5N1).
Mink farms were hotbeds of the Covid virus, infecting humans in two-way transfers. More recently they spread the continually mutating bird flu through airborne transmission. In fact, minks are so adept at catching and mutating viruses they are a favorite "model" for animal researchers.
Mink acuity also outlasts their lives. In Denmark during the Covid pandemic, slaughtered infected minks rose up from their graves after death like zombies due to the gasses their corpses emitted--leading to a call to cremate the mammals.
"Don't Tell the Public Where We Are"
In addition to infection-prevention regulations like distancing minks, Illinois' House Bill 2627 would require mink farmers to disclose their locations for the first time. Locations were hidden for a reason, say farmers--to prevent animal activists breaking in and releasing caged minks into the wild.
Fur is an easy target for animal welfare advocates; as opposed to meat which might be considered necessary, fur is clearly gratuitous and capricious and the killing methods shocking. To preserve the look of pelts, gassing and head-to-tail electrocution--from mouth and anus-- are used as killing methods.
Mink farmers consider the Illinois bill a blatant effort to ban the mink industry, while bill supporters say it is public health legislation.
Fur Popularity Sinking
Fur has had rough years in sales and image. As household budgets locked down during Covid, fur and other luxury goods appeared dispensable. But even before Covid, fur was a dying industry, pun intended.
Like fur farming, at least until the Denmark experience, "wild" fur from seal slaughter and trapping often flies under the radar (though deaths can be gorier). Not one pelt from the Nunavut Canadian seal kill a few years sold at a Toronto auction according to the Northern News Services. Combined with other unsold pelts, that made 11,000 seals, mostly babies, killed for no reason! Sorry about that.
Mink, beaver and coyote pelts were selling for one dollar in Pompey, New York according to published reports. Raccoon and opossum pelts sold for 25 cents. Luckily trappers often say they pursue their trade for the "fun" not the sparse money.
Where Would Someone Wear a Mink?
In addition to cruelty to animals and pandemic risks there is another question when it comes to fur and especially mink: Where would a woman wear a fur garment anyway today? To work, the gym or on a date where they'd feel like overdressed idiots (and turn off the politically correct)? To a dance or night club where they'd have to guard the garment all night? To visit their family in Molene once a year? To the opera?
The sad fact is the only place someone can wear a fur is shopping for a new fur which is why the second-hand stores are full of them.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Post Article Comment and Rate This Article
