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Denmark is a world leader in the mink industry and last year the country exported mink furs worth DKK 4.9 billion, according to Danmarks Radio.
Now the whole industry is expected to go to the grave in practice. Since a mutated variant of the coronavirus was found among herds, there has been a mass slaughter of animals and on Monday parliament passed a bill banning mink farming in the country in 2021.
The proposal was supported for the Social Democratic government and the supporting parties Radikale Venstre, Socialistisk Folkeparti and Enhedslisten. However, the blue bloc with, for example, the Liberal Party and the Danish People’s Party voted against the proposal because it is not yet clear how the Danish mink farmers will be financially compensated.
– We are here three days before Christmas and we cannot say that the mink farmers are compensated. It is not in order, said René Christensen of the Danish People’s Party during the debate in the Folketing.
He criticized the S government’s decision in early November that there would be a mass slaughter of minks in the country.
– Has the government gone digitally blind? They have spent 20 billion in one afternoon, Christensen said according to Danish TV2.
It has been previously said that the parties must negotiate the amount of financial compensation to be received by the mink farmers, but no such agreement exists yet. According to Danmarks Radio, the bill could reach around 20 billion Danish crowns.
– We did not vote yes on the bill because we do not want to give the government a blank check to decide how mink farmers should be compensated, said Karsten Lauritzen, group leader of the largest opposition party Venstre.
Around eleven million Danish minks have been killed and destroyed. Only around four million minks have been killed with the goal of turning into fur. The mass slaughter in combination with the ban on mink farming means that the industry is effectively going to the grave.
– In principle, Denmark will be permanently away from the market. Breeding animals are practically gone and it takes forever to get back, Jörgen Martinsson, CEO of Swedish mink, tells TT.
Martinsson has during the pandemic he had close contact with his Danish colleagues.
– The first shock has turned into pain. Then there is political chaos and political scandal in the aftermath of all this, he says.
In some cases, the mutated coronavirus among Danish minks has spread to humans and there are fears that a future vaccine will be ineffective.
In early November, the Danish Social Democratic government decided that all minks, including healthy animals, should be euthanized, but a few days later the decision turned out to be illegal. On November 18, the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Mogens Jensen (S) resigned to address the issue.
With the new law there is now a legal basis for killing mink in Denmark. In addition to the ban on breeding next year, for example, it will also be illegal to bring mink into and out of the country and transport animals between mink farms.
The Folketing has previously decided to designate an investigation into how the Social Democratic government and the authorities involved have handled the mink issue.
Read more: “Mink-gate” The most difficult crisis for Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen
