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In Denmark, the Social Democratic government has failed to get enough support from the Folketing for the emergency law required to be able to implement plans to kill the country’s 15 million minks, various Danish media report. The fur farmers are still sticking to the old decision and will kill the minks.
The idea was to use one hastelov, a so-called emergency law, Tuesday.
Under current legislation, it is not possible to require that healthy minks outside of affected North Jutland must be killed, writes DR, who spoke to legal experts.
However, many minks have already had time to be slaughtered, more precisely 2.5 million animals, says Danish TV2. Fur producers have rushed to kill minks in the belief that they are being forced and that they will receive financial compensation.
On Tuesday, breeders received a letter from the government in which what had previously been formulated as a requirement has now been changed to a recommendation. Mink farmers still believe that minks are now being independently killed and that the decision can no longer be reversed.
Denmark’s Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mogens Jensen, regrets the lack of clarity in the communication and says it was advice.
It still recognizes that the government based on the urgent situation judged that they did not have time to wait for new legislation, writes DR. The legal experts DR spoke with are critical of the government announcing the matter without a legal basis.
It is not yet clear what the compensation will be
According to TV2, the Folketing has not yet been able to agree on the compensation that the fur producers will receive. The question is whether this should occur through so-called expropriation, where the state takes over the property in exchange for financial compensation.
Several mink farms have run deficits and this reduces the value of the farms.
There are also proposals to provide support to fur entrepreneurs to help them invest in changing careers.
Trade Minister Simon Kollerup (S) has previously promised “solid” compensation to all mink farms.
Up to 2.4 million minks have been killed
Denmark’s proposal to kill minks came after a mutated form of the coronavirus was found in animals.
According to current legislation, minks must be slaughtered if minks from the same farm have become ill or if the mink farm is close to another farm where animals have been infected.
The Danish government will propose an amendment to the law that will also allow the killing of healthy minks. According to authorities, around 2.4 million of Denmark’s roughly 14-17 million minks have already died.
Sources: DR, TV2, Finans, STT
The article was updated at 4:00 pm with information on how many minks have been killed and that mink farmers are sticking to the decision to kill minks despite the government backing down.
