KDSN RADIO News
Mink farm damaged, mink turned loose near Woodbine
(Radio Iowa) – A spokesman for the trade group Fur Commission U.S.A. reports that someone illegally entered a mink farm in southwest Iowa near Woodbine Monday night.
Spokesman Challis Hobbs says a farmer, his son, and grandson, who raise more than 1,000 mink, found the perimeter fence torn down.
“That’s what they woke up to,” Hobbs says. “They discovered many of the pens had been opened, and the housing — the nest boxes where the mink stay warm — had been destroyed.”
Hobbs says around half of the mink remained on the property, and the family has been working to recover the others. Because the animals are domesticated, they do not survive well in the wild.
“What we see time and time again is that within 24 to 48 hours, if the farmer can’t recover them, the majority of them die,” Hobbs explains. “The ones that don’t are desperate and carnivorous — they’ll kill anything they can find to eat.”
He says the mink might survive for a short time by hunting birds or chickens, but many are ultimately killed on the roadways or die from exposure.
Hobbs notes there have been similar attacks on fur farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the incidents are not random acts of vandalism.
“Everyone who’s been caught doing this has been activists,” he says. “It’s very organized — really, it’s organized crime. For example, in Pennsylvania, those involved had pamphlets detailing how to avoid getting caught — things like turning off cell phones, what to say if arrested, and how to avoid implicating other extremist activists.”
Local law enforcement and the FBI are investigating the Woodbine case.
“These crimes fall under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act,” Hobbs says. “The government classifies them as domestic terrorism because these groups intentionally target farms and try to put farming families out of business.”
Hobbs adds that two people were arrested in Pennsylvania and face multiple charges. Each mink is worth around $45, but he says the financial loss is much higher when breeding animals are lost.
