After a long break: Denmark’s mink breeding is up and running again

The Danish government had millions of mink killed during the corona pandemic. Now the industry with the fur animals is to be ramped up again. Animal rights activists complain that breeding is allowed again.

Martin Korsbaek wants to start over. For years he had raised mink for fur production on his farm in North Jutland. But the barns, built up in long rows, are empty.

In November 2020, the Danish government decided that all mink in the country must be killed – because mutations of the coronavirus had been found in the animals. At that time, the authorities had more than 15 million mink culled.

“It took me a lot back then,” says Korsbaek now. “Nevertheless, I and my wife will invest a lot of money to buy new animals and get back into mink breeding.”

Most of the mink went to China

Despite being just 28 years old, Korsbaek is an experienced mink breeder who started the fur trade as a teenager. Since then he has never wanted to do anything else. In 2020 at the mass cull, Korsbaek had 1,100 breeding animals. Now he wants to start again with 600 animals. “It will take a lot of work to start again now. But I’m still young, I still have many years ahead of me.”

Before Corona, there were around 1,200 mink farms in Denmark, more than anywhere else in Europe. The mink went mainly to China for the production of fur coats. But now only about a dozen breeders want to get started again – with around ten thousand animals brought to Denmark from Iceland and Finland.

Some are now growing strawberries

After the mass culling, the government decided to compensate the industry. According to current calculations, a total of around 1.75 billion euros will be paid to breeders as compensation for loss of earnings by 2030. But many breeders have switched. Some no longer work on their farm at all, others grow strawberries or crops.

Only a few breeders had applied for so-called rest time compensation, which was intended to ensure that they could survive until mink breeding was allowed again. Louise Simonsen, chairwoman of the “Danske Mink” association, does not expect any more mink breeding on a large scale. “We will never have the same number of mink and breeders again. But hopefully we can build a niche industry that also fetches better prices.”

Animal protection organizations protest

Animal protection organizations in Denmark such as “Dyrenes Beskyttelse” would have preferred to stay with the complete ban on mink farming in the country. Because that is simply not species-appropriate, says the director of the association Britta Riis: “You put a wild animal in a small cage. The mink has no way of behaving normally,” says Riis. That is against the nature of animals. “That’s why we are against mink production.”

Riis points out that many European countries have now banned commercial mink farming – including the former major producer Netherlands. Although there is no official production ban in Germany, there have been no more commercial mink farms since 2019 due to the high legal requirements.

“The world is now wider than Denmark,” says animal rights activist Riis. But she admits that in some rural areas, especially in North Jutland, mink farming has been very common and has a lot of support.

Government fell over mass slaughter

The so-called mink scandal in 2020 developed into a real political issue in Denmark. Because the mass culling of around 15 million animals took place without a legal basis, as a parliamentary commission later determined. First, the Minister of Agriculture had to resign.

But the pressure on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was so great that she was finally forced to call quick new elections last October. Your Social Democratic Party received the most votes at the beginning of November. But Frederiksen has governed ever since with two bourgeois parties that are more open to mink farming than the former left-wing partners of the Social Democrats.

However, even before the election, the authorities decided that there were no longer any fundamental health concerns about mink farming.

Trial operation until April

Nevertheless, the conditions are now strict for the breeders who want to start again. The animals have to be randomly tested for corona – and if the situation threatens to worsen after a positive test, the animals should be culled.

The breeders on the farms must wear masks and be tested weekly. First of all, a trial run is valid until April. After that, it should be decided what the further requirements will look like. The breeding association “Danske Mink” demands clear and manageable rules. However, the argument of the risk of corona should not be used to enforce a total ban.

Mink breeder Martin Korsbaek considers the risk of infection to be manageable. Every animal husbandry also harbors risks that have to be weighed up.

He sees a long way ahead of him. It will probably take five years for the animals’ skins to be of the same quality as they used to be, says Korsbaek. “But we want to get back to the old Danish level – to get our quality back to the top.”