In a previous post we looked at the debate about the decision of the Danish government to cull the country's entire mink population - that is millions of minks - to prevent a mutated Coronavirus from being passed to humans. In that post we also briefly looked at the consequences the cull may have had on the fur industry. But there are further updates regarding that story that we should look at. This week it was indeed announced that the Covid-19 mutation found in mink in Denmark was probably extinct.
Infections among mink were first reported in April when mink in multiple farms across The Netherlands were first infected with Coronavirus by their farmers. Then followed infections of mink in other countries, with outbreaks in Spain and Denmark; in August around 10,000 mink died from Covid-19 at fur farms in Utah, in the US. More outbreaks were found in mink farms in Wisconsin and Michigan. The symptoms of Covid-19 in mink are not dissimilar to the ones in humans, and the animals usually show breathing difficulties and discharge from their eyes and nose, and eventually die very quickly.
The Danish government was worried when the virus first passed from humans to animals and then mutated. The mutation occurred in the spike protein on the virus' surface (the mink variant, known as Cluster-5 or C5 seems harder for antibodies to neutralise), the part of the virus that infects healthy cells and Coronavirus vaccines are designed to disable the spike protein, but such vaccines may not provide protection against this mutation. The main concern of the Danish government was that the mutation may have passed again to humans, creating a new pandemic.
At the beginning of November, the Danish government announced the decision to cull more than 15 million of mink as a precautionary measure at farms where infections were recorded or that were based near infected farms. A few days later Frederik Waage, law professor at the University of Southern Denmark, stated the cull order was illegal: the government didn't indeed have the legal authority to mandate the killing of mink on farms unaffected by Covid-19. Besides, the mass culling should have been a recommendation rather than an order. Yet, the cull had already started and went officially on (but the debate over it forced the resignation of Denmark's agriculture minister, Mogens Jensen). Two days ago it was announced that the Danish Covid mink variant was probably extinct, in the meantime Covid-19 mink variants were discovered in other countries as well, including Russia, Italy and Greece.
The news about Covid-19 mutations in mink had some positive effects as they raised alarms regarding animal farming and the conditions in which mink are kept: in September, an investigation by an NGO uncovered animals kept in horrific conditions in mink farms in Poland with cases of cannibalism, self-aggression, open wounds and sick animals, and the Polish government recently announced a bill banning fur farming (even though in this case the reduction in demand may be the real reason behind the decision of the government). At the moment Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and the UK have banned fur farming. In August the Dutch government announced that mink fur farms must permanently close by March 2021: mink fur was banned in 2013 in The Netherlands and the deadline to comply was originally set to 2024 but Covid-19 accelerated the process. France may also join these countries as the last four remaining mink fur farms in the country are expected to close by 2025.
Kopenhagen Fur, Denmark's cooperative of 1,500 breeders, originally founded in 1930 and the world's largest fur auction house, announced this week it will shut its doors in the next two to three years.
"Unfortunately, the loss of the Danish mink production means that the ownership base disappears and therefore, the company's management has decided to gradually downsize the company and make a controlled shutdown over a period of 2-3 years," the company said Thursday on its website. "Kopenhagen Fur is built on the cooperative spirit's belief in the individual and its strength in the community. Unfortunately, even the strongest community cannot survive the consequences of the decisions that have now been made."
In the short term the business will go on as usual as the company will receive Danish skins from healthy farms and skins from other countries as well in the next weeks to be sold at four auctions planned for 2021. Besides, another auction may take place in 2022 and maybe in 2023. Kopenhagen Fur's younger brand - Oh! by Kopenhagen Fur - also shut in October.
These new developments accelerated by Coronavirus are marking the slow yet relentless end of the fur trade. And while we may be nearer the end of animal cruelty in the name of luxury, the next few years will be crucial for those fur farmers who will have to radically rethink their lives and who will hopefully be able to move towards more sustainable businesses.
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