Legal action possible as mink breeders fight fur farm ban

Canadian mink breeders are not ruling out legal action as they slam the B.C. government's decision to shutter the mink fur farming sector.

Canadian mink breeders are not ruling out legal action as they slam the B.C. government's decision to shutter the mink fur farming sector.

On Friday, provincial Minister of Agriculture Lana Popham unveiled a process to permanently phase out the farming of mink, due to concerns over COVID-19. The process is expected to be completed by April 2025.

There are nine mink farms in B.C. with a total of 318,000 mink. Animals on three of those farms have been infected with COVID-19.

“That has led to transmission between mink, between mink and humans, and humans back to mink,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, on Friday.

Denmark ordered the slaughter of millions of mink in November 2020 over concerns that the coronavirus could mutate in the animals and be passed back to humans. However, Canadian breeders say their facilities have adequate biosecurity measures in place, and don’t believe there’s sufficient evidence to shut the industry down in B.C. 

“This is absolutely an unnecessary, radical and excessive response,” said Matt Moses, a Nova Scotia mink farmer and former president of the Canada Mink Breeders Association (CMBA).

Of the 60 mink farms in Canada, Moses says just three have recorded cases of COVID-19. He’s calling on the B.C. government to approach COVID-19 outbreaks the way same way it treated outbreaks of avian flu in poultry plants.