Denmark Faces Calls to Dig Up Just-Buried Minks

Millions were culled in coronavirus measure
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 28, 2020 9:50 AM CST
Denmark Now Considers Incinerating Buried Minks
Farmers drive tractors in a convoy to protest the mass culling of minks in Aalborg, Denmark, earlier this month.   (Henning Bagger/Ritzau via AP)

Just weeks after starting to cull millions of minks to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Denmark's government is under pressure to exhume them. One mass burial site is near a swimming lake, the other near a source of drinking water, the BBC reports. In addition, gases have caused some of the minks to rise from the grave, possibly because the topsoil wasn't heavy enough, per the Washington Post. Opposition lawmakers and the new agriculture minister now want the minks to be incinerated. The government plans to cull more than 15 million minks in an effort against a mutated form of the coronavirus, wrecking the nation's fur industry.

Danish TV captured Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wiping away tears Thursday at a mink farm. "We have two generations of really skilled mink farmers, father and son, who in a very, very short time have had their life's work shattered, and that… It's been emotional for them," she said. "Sorry. For me as well." The culling effort has not gone well. The government has conceded that the culling order wasn't legal and that it didn't order an enviromental impact assessment. Lawmakers, meeting in a crisis session, were told Friday by the environment minister that incineration should have been used in the first place. "One makes mistakes when being too hasty," the agriculture minister said. (More Denmark stories.)

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