The neighbourhood of Örnsköldsvik has met with a special sort of environmental catastrophe - the minks.
A small village in northern Sweden called Nordmaling has a big minkfarm.
A few days ago the farm was attacked by a group called D.V.M "De Vilda Minkarna" ("The Free Minks"). About 20 000 minks were released and this has caused big problems for both animals and people.
- This has cost millions of Swedish kronor and it´s a cruelty to the animals, says Gunnar Nordberg who is the owner of the farm.
The minks spread quickly over the Nordmaling area.
There is just a small chance for the minks to survive the winter because they have no food and they are not used to being in the hard cold.
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In Sweden you can find 2 000 minkfarms. They produce about 1, 3 million mink-skins a year. That is 4% of the worldproduction. One of these farms is in Nordmaling.
Nordmaling is in north Sweden and it has an area of: 1234 km² and about 8000 people lives there.
On October 30th 20 000 minks were released. It happened between 03.00 - 05.00 pm. when one of the nightguards had gone to bed after his ordinary round. The farm also had watch-dogs but they didn't make a sound, so probably they were drugged.
The group "D.V.M." had cut holes in the fence to get into the farm and there they removed the hooks on the cages and the minks ran out.
The whole municipality of Nordmaling were effected by these free animals.
- Bloody minks that have been run over are lying all over the E4.
Thousands of minks are in the woods and some of them are even in peoples houses.
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A big mink hunt is going on.
About 50 hunters and people from the civil defence have been working very hard to kill or catch minks.
The environment and the public health committee are also involved to prevent the spreading of dead minks. About 10 000 minks have been killed or taken care of, but there are still many left.
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- It ate my cat´s nose
The minks get very stressed and just run and scream. They can´t handle the freedom. The minks are so scared that they start to eat each other to get food. They have also killed and eaten cats and other animals to get food.
-There were minks everywhere and one of them attacked me. I kicked it and ran inside my house. I made it, but my cat didn't, says Lillemor Lagnebro one of the victims.
The mink bit the cat first over the head and then it ate the cat´s nose.
A group of scientists at Umeå University has taken care of 100 dead minks and in their stomach they have found polystyrene.
Now they can survive
"De vilda minkarna" have sent a press communiqué. It says: " For the first time in their terrible lives these wonderful minks have, all known as individuals, felt something else than steelnet under their paws and they can now enjoy freedom.
People who are positive to the release of the minks have these argument:
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It's better for the minks to die in freedom than to be gassed to death .
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Now about 90% of the minks die but in captivity 100% would die. Now the minks have at least a little chance to survive.
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The owner of the farm looses a lot of money so maybe he will put down his business.
Tomas Westerlund, 18 years old, is a vegan and fights for the rights.
-It was right to let the minks go. Suddenly Swedish people feel sorry for them but when 1000 minks are gassed to death there is no one who cares. We will not give up our fight for the minks rights.
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Birds and fishes in danger
Because of this attempt the nature is threatened in many ways.
Some minks will probably survive the winter and then the bird- and fishlife will be in danger.
The whole echosystem will be out of balance.
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