1000 mink slaughtered at the Eure-et-Loir fur farm because of cases of Covid-19
The 1000 mink at the Eure-et-Loir fur farm have been slaughtered because cases of Covid-19 were detected there. We call for the immediate closure of the four French fur farms.
The government has just announced that the 1000 mink at the Eure-et-Loir fur farm, kept in shocking conditions as we revealed in images in 2019 and 2020, have just been slaughtered. In fact cases of Covid-19 had been detected amongst the animals. Not yet amongst the owners and the employees. We are calling once again for the immediate closure of the four remaining fur farms in mainland France!
For years, with the help of images and expert opinion, we have repeatedly denounced the horror that mink experience on fur farms, be they in France or in other countries, in addition to the considerable risks that American mink pose to the biodiversity of their European cousins. We have mobilized our fellow citizens, submitted complaints against several farms, written to the prefecture of Eure-et-Loir and to the Ministry of Ecology and succeeded in getting many of them closed down, and we represented the fur group during discussions with the Ministry of Ecology in 2019.
The danger of mink farms for a potential vaccine
In the last few weeks we have also raised awareness of the danger of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on mink farms in the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Spain and even in America being transmitted by staff to the mink. The conditions in which the slaughtered mink were kept favoured the spread of the virus among animals, where it mutated, potentially making any vaccine for humans ineffective.
Immediate closure of the four mink farms!
The Minister of Ecology has announced that they will
close over the next five years. In view of the latest developments that is much too long: they must be closed down immediately! And in particular breeders must not be allowed to resume exploitation of these unfortunate creatures in six months or a year. Our complaint against this type of animal-farming is ongoing and we have recently obtained a ruling that the Montarlot farm will not be allowed to expand.
Muriel Arnal, Chair of One Voice, declares:
«We have submitted a complaint against the breeders in Eure-et-Loir for the cruelty perpetrated on the mink on their farm. So much suffering to get as far as this! No more mink must be born on this farm, nor on the other three. It is high time to rethink our relationship with wild animals.»
Translated from the French by Patricia Foley