Stop mink farming in France!
Two mink farms in Franche-Comté call for an increase in the size of their capacity. Even more suffering? One Voice is against it. Let's mobilize together, quickly!
Two mink farms in Franche-Comté call for an increase in the size of their capacity. Even more suffering? One Voice is against it. Let’s mobilize together, quickly!
In
the case of the first breeder, revealing serious infractions is worth
describing. The company opened at Emagny in 1985. From the beginning,
it broke all regulations, moved into a protected natural area,
feeding its mink with the skinned corpses of their predecessors,
pours its dirty water directly into the river Ognon. Warnings of
abuse, recommendations, procedures and seals, its manager is finally
sentenced in 2016 to imprisonment. But what is this benevolence shown
by local authorities? Thus, the Prefecture had to be called to order,
for the lack of binding measures against the breeder a repeat
offender. The municipality, meanwhile, has revised its land use with
plans to reclassify the agricultural area, the plot illegally
occupied by the farmer and allow him to stay there.
Here
the breeder, just out of court with a monitoring bracelet on his
ankle, asks the regularization and extension of his breeding, with
construction of 10 additional buildings. The total capacity of his
farm would increase to 18,200 mink including 3,200 for breeding. The
public inquiry runs until May 20, 2017 and everyone can file a
comment. A second breeder located in Montarlot-lez-Rioz, probably
linked to the first one, wants to pass to 5,000 mink.
Why
do mink farms need to be banned?
Firstly,
because they make animals suffer. Mink are semi-aquatic mammals,
forced to live from birth in tiny mesh cages without access to water.
All of them eventually go crazy and most end up like at Emagny,
gassed in groups of a hundred in an airtight box connected to the
exhaust of a heat engine: so as to not soil the fur with blood.
Then,
because the farms pollute terribly. The excrement of mink, their
blood and their carcasses generate a real environmental risk. These
nitrogen and phosphorus-laden wastes pollute water by runoff and lead
to eutrophication of rivers, which is fatal for fish. Large
quantities of ammonia gas, nitrogen oxide and methane are also
released into the air, affecting the quality of life of the
surrounding inhabitants and contributing to global warming.
Finally,
with captive animals constantly escaping, American mink reared in
these farms quickly adapt to our biotopes and their invasive presence
affects local wildlife, especially mink in Europe. They end up
cruelly trapped or drowned as harmful pests.
For
all mink, please signify your refusal on the extension of the
breeding centre of Emagny, please leave your comments on the site of
the services for the department in the Doubs, from April 18th to May
20th, 2017.