A series of unfortunate events has led to issues that are currently brewing over the mink farming community of Morgan.
The first of these, is that the trapping, breeding, and slaughter of animals for their fur did not end when the need to wear fur for survival ended. Mink who are raised on so-called fur “farms” are kept in small, barren cages, and deprived of all activities that are natural to them. Mink is a species that is genetically wild – denying them what their instincts drive them to do is extremely cruel. As soon as their prized winter fur comes in, they are killed by gassing, neck breaking, poisoning, or anal electrocution… sometimes they are not even dead or unconscious when they are skinned. Their denuded bodies are often ground up and fed back to other mink, rendered as pet food, or simply dumped into a landfill as trash.
Although some fur farmers would like you to think they have “high animal welfare standards,” there are no laws that govern this industry or protect the animals from being skinned alive or in any other way abused or mistreated… there are only laws that protect the businesses, no matter what they do or how they operate.
But I would like to be clear about this – it is not how the animals are raised and killed that is at contention – it is that they are raised and killed at all. Animals value their lives as we value ours. It is a moral wrong to take life away from them needlessly, regardless of how it is done. And no one needs a fur coat more than the creature who was born with it.
This has set the stage for another unfortunate situation. Some people have become frustrated by a lack of legal recourse to take against those so engaged, and have taken the law into their own hands by releasing mink from these “farms” and otherwise destroying property. This has contributed to the passage of what is called the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which not only imposes harsher penalties for interfering with an industry such as mink “farming” – but also places the dubious label of “terrorist” on the perpetrator.
Which brings us to an open and lawful protest to be held in Morgan County in November, on International Fur-Free Friday.
Upon receiving news of this protest, the Morgan City council met and changed the picketing law, so that the protests can’t be held within 1,000 feet of the mink operations, rather than 100 feet, as is customary. They also may require the picketers to obtain a mass-gathering permit from the county prior to the protest. Apparently, the council doesn’t feel that the mink farmers should have to see or hear the criticisms against them, nor should attention be drawn to these specific farms. After all, this type of criticism (lawful and non-violent as it is) could hurt someone’s livelihood, if people found out what was going on there. The farmers claim that they “fear” the protesters, although one would expect that law enforcement will be on hand to ensure that the demonstration stays peaceful. It would also be very unlikely that any property damage or animal releases would occur at this protest.
But here is what I think they are really afraid of: being revealed. Most of us don’t seriously believe that the fur industry will end by attacking the suppliers of pelts. It will end when there is no more demand for them. That is predicated on public knowledge and scrutiny.
This is a brutal line of work that is not popular among most furry-critter-loving Utahns – in fact, it would not be tolerated at all if these “farmers” were raising cats and dogs for fur (as they do in China), rather than mink. The truth is, fur operations rely on secrecy. The less the public knows about them, the easier it is for them to do what they do, hiding behind government protection without having to answer too many questions.
These protests, no matter where they are held, will create awareness that Morgan mink farmers, protected by local government, are responsible for the breeding, killing, and skinning (not necessarily in that order) of about one-third of the half million mink that suffer in tiny cages and die in Utah every year for their fur.
To quote one commenter on the original protest story… who wears fur nowadays anyway? Personally, I don’t know anyone who owns a fur coat. Hopefully soon, no one will want to, and this horrible industry will bid a long-awaited farewell to the world.
References
Dog and Cat Fur Trade – your fur trim might be a pet… but why should it matter?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuaMsUda7kg
International Fur-Free Friday
http://www.antifurcoalition.org/
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Enterprise_Terrorism_Act
News Stories
Protesters plan to Target Morgan Mink Farms
http://www.standard.net/?q=topics/news/2009/08/13/protesters-plan-target-morgan-mink-farms
Morgan Council Supports Mink Ranchers, defines picketing rules
http://www.standard.net/?q=topics/news/2009/09/25/morgan-council-supports-mink-ranchers-defines-picketing-rules
Morgan’s attempt to stifle mink protest may backfire
http://www.standard.net/?q=topics/opinion/2009/09/25/morgans-attempt-stifle-mink-protest-may-backfire
Morgan fumbles mink protest « Standard Examiner Blogs
on Sep 30th, 2009
@ 11:01 am:
[...] Burt’s provocative post today about the mink pelt frenzy in Morgan County is recommended reading. Meantime, I’m going to [...]
Craig
on Oct 2nd, 2009
@ 3:00 pm:
I must not be one of the ‘most furry-critter-loving Utahns’ because I don’t agree with your characterization of the brutality. Mostly, I disagree with your characterization of the ‘human like’ attributes you would love to vest the animals with. I guess I’ve never been to a school that had a mink in the class!
I can understand the fear that Morgan would have of the protest because they have had so many problems with destruction and other acts that are costly to remedy.
It is too bad that a city has to limit our speech rights because of the past misbehavior of some animal activists. It’s too bad you get caught in that law classification when you may not be one. Perhaps if animal activists policed their ranks by cooperating with law enforcement to catch the mischief makers, there would be more sympathy. What I see is while groups say they don’t condone the bad things, they do nothing to discourage it.
Catherine Burt
on Oct 3rd, 2009
@ 10:29 am:
I’ve never been to a school that had a kitten in the class either… does that mean we should raise them in rows and rows of small cages and kill them when their fur gets thick? What if we skinned them alive, would that be ok with you?
Seriously I don’t know why this is so difficult for people to grasp. It would be fair to say that the desire to continue living and not suffer needlessly is actually an animal trait that we assign to humans… not the other way around.
Teresa Platt
on Oct 5th, 2009
@ 10:47 am:
There is a lot of misinformation in this article. We note that it is written by a vegan author. While Ms. Burt has the right to choose synthetic (oil-based) clothing for her winter wear, most people prefer natural fibers such as wool, leather, sheepskin and fine furs. To visit a fur farm online, come to furcommission.com and for information on the many laws governing the natural fiber fur
clothing business, see Question 3 at furcommission.com/FAQ.htm
Catherine Burt
on Oct 5th, 2009
@ 10:59 am:
Someone who profits from the sale of skinned animals cannot be more credible than someone who does not profit in any way from what they claim. I am not with any organization nor do I represent any. Please be specific about the “misinformation” you claim this article contains.
Oil based clothing… let’s talk about the chemicals involved in processing fur to prevent it from decomposing like the rest of the animal. To show that I’m on the up and up, this is from the Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety:
http://books.google.com/books?id=nDhpLa1rl44C&pg=PT830&lpg=PT830&dq=chemicals+involved+in+fur+processing&source=bl&ots=zKWlVTHzkT&sig=Tp_CJM0ftPUJrlAMnanVYyTt4vQ&hl=en&ei=6hjKSvm7MpP6sQPq0dChBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#v=onepage&q=chemicals%20involved%20in%20fur%20processing&f=false
Face it, your organization doesn’t care any more about humans or the environment than it cares about the animals.
Craig
on Oct 5th, 2009
@ 2:55 pm:
Cathrine,
I certainly welcome comments but changing the subject to “kittens in class” doesn’t apply to the discussion. Care to try again without an changing the subject or appealing to emotion?
Catherine Burt
on Oct 5th, 2009
@ 4:53 pm:
I’m only responding to your comment that you’ve “never been to a school that had a mink in the class.” Did you need to go to school to learn that you’d prefer to live than die? Do you think mink need to? I also have never been to a school that had a kitten in the class, but to most people, that doesn’t justify killing kittens for their fur.
This is an appeal to rational logic, not emotion. If we would not do it to a dog or cat, why should we do it to a mink, a fox, a chinchilla, or any other living creature capable of suffering?
Michael Trujillo
on Oct 5th, 2009
@ 7:01 pm:
Craig,
Regarding your sentence: “It is too bad that a city has to limit our speech rights because of the past misbehavior of some animal activists.”
Morgan City didn’t HAVE to do anything of the sort. They chose to over react to the situation, they weren’t forced to. As more than one person has pointed out, this will bite them in the a$$ one day. In the meantime, civil disobedience is a time honored form of protest in the United States. You wouldn’t enjoy your eight-hour work day and five-day work week if it weren’t for the destructive protests of the blue collar workers of the late 19th and early 20th Century. Women wouldn’t enjoy the vote if it weren’t for the women who chained themselves to the White House gates and were jailed for protesting.
A good protest is like a good party, it isn’t over until something gets broken.
Catherine Burt
on Oct 5th, 2009
@ 10:36 pm:
Absolutely, Michael.
Regarding bad behavior, actually there is a huge debate within the AR community over the use of violence (and we regard property destruction as such). Many of us only use legal, non-violent methods (mainly education) to get the point across… but we can’t take responsibility for those who do otherwise… therefore we should not have to accept limitations on our right to lawful protest based on what they do.
What Morgan needs to understand is that the organizers of that protest already KNOW where the mink farms are. If their intent was to raid the farms or do violence there, restricting a lawful protest will not help avoid it.
mish
on Jan 3rd, 2010
@ 4:18 pm:
Anna Wintour is in charge of who wears what. She personally dictates what designers create. SHE LOVES FUR. She brought fur back in the 80s.
We need to bombard her with anti-fur mail. AT LEAST, and anti-leather too; cashmere, wool , silk. Ugh, we will never win over cashmere and wool and silk.