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Denmark’s government has said it was considering unearthing and incinerating the hastily buried corpses of millions of mink euthanized in the latest twist in a virus-linked farming scandal that has rocked the government.
After a mutated version of the new coronavirus was found in animals, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced a cull in early November of the roughly 15 to 17 million minks in the Scandinavian nation, the world’s largest exporter of its fur.
Once a massive gassing program had already begun, a judicial challenge to the order determined that the executive’s decision had no legal basis, leading to the resignation of the agriculture minister.
Now problems have arisen with the disposal of dead animals amid fears that large amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen will be released into the soil surrounding mass graves due to the decomposition process.
Denmark’s new agriculture minister Rasmus Prehn expressed support for the idea of exhuming the slaughtered minks and burning them, while saying such a move would need approval from the country’s environmental agency.
“I have had the desire to get rid of the minks and burns since the first day I found out,” he told TV2 station.
The majority of the Danish parliament, where the idea has been debated, supports the idea.
Earlier this week, in the western municipality of Holstebro, gases released during the decomposition process began to push corpses back to the surface of a burial pit that was too shallow.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Frederiksen wiped away tears and apologized for handling the crisis while visiting one of the affected mink farmers.
“I have no problem apologizing for the course of events, because mistakes have been made,” Ms Frederiksen told TV2 broadcaster.
The cull was ordered out of fear that a mutated coronavirus found in mink would make vaccines against the disease less effective.
Last week, the Danish government concluded that the potential threat to human vaccines was “most likely extinct”, in the absence of new cases of the mutated version.
More than 10 million minks have already been slaughtered in the Scandinavian country, according to the latest count.
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