The New York Times notes that the COVID 19 mink cull in Denmark is causing real political problems:
The slaughter of minks in Denmark to prevent the spread of a potentially dangerous new strain of the coronavirus has prompted a political crisis in the country, with the minister of agriculture forced to step down and the government in danger of collapse.
The cull has led to a political crisis in Denmark, with right-wing parties accusing the government of using the pandemic to try to end mink farming in the country. Denmark is home to some of the world’s largest mink farms, with an estimated population of more than 15 million.
The opposition is calling for Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to resign after a hurried decision to cull the animals after a mutated strain of the virus was found to have made the leap from the animals to humans....
When Ms. Frederiksen ordered the killing of all the animals in Denmark two weeks ago, the military had to step in to assist the country’s approximately 1,100 mink farmers in the slaughter.
Mogens Jensen, the minister of agriculture, condemned the rapid action taken by the government, saying it had no legal basis to kill the animals and destroy the industry.
On Thursday, a Danish newspaper, B.T., reported that Mr. Jensen and five other ministers had warned in September that culling beyond the infected areas was illegal.
The slaughter was halted midway through the effort and the focus shifted to culling minks only in the vicinity of the outbreak tied to the mutated strain of the virus.
But Mr. Jensen had already lost the support of the government and was forced to step down.
The culling of the minks has been met by a broad public backlash, with a study by Aarhus University finding support for the government falling by 20 percent.
It's a little hard to understand whether the public political backlash is inspired by a Right wing-ish "how dare you try to kill our beloved fur industry", or a more Left wing "how dare you kill those cute animals unnecessarily."
I mean - how much public awareness is there in Denmark of what mink farms look like? Because, frankly, to this outsider, the permanently cage bound conditions of these animals doesn't make the practice look at all humane.
Unsurprisingly, anti fur activists see this as an opportunity to close down the industry permanently. And if it does, it will mean that this video effort to paint Danish mink farming in as positive a light as possible was all for nothing. As a PR effort, it transparently is a case of "tries too hard".
The industry was probably on the way out anyway:
Wearing fur remains relatively acceptable in Denmark—enough so that hip young designers like Astrid Andersen and Saks Potts still incorporate it into their collections. But changing tastes and increased animal-welfare concerns have led many of the world’s top fashion designers—from Versace to Ralph Lauren to Vivienne Westwood to Chanel—to drop it from their collections. Many retailers as well, including department stores like Macy’s and online outlets like Farfetch, have pledged to stop selling the product. Fur farming is already banned in the U.K., and France recently announced it would ban mink fur farming by 2025. On the heels of a coronavirus outbreak in its own mink flock, the Netherlands moved up its own plan to phase out mink farming; originally planned for 2024, it must now be complete by March 2021.
So yeah, while I don't wish illnesses on humans in order to stop farming I am uncomfortable with, I guess at least something I approve of came out of COVID.
No comments:
Post a Comment