'Should Be Fair': Danish Mink Breeders Demand Further Compensation From State Over 2020 Cull

In late 2020, the Danish authorities ordered and executed a blanket cull of the country's 15 million farmed mink for fear that a discovered mutation would interfere with human vaccines against COVID-19.

Owners of Danish mink fur farms are suing the state for DKK 600 million ($90 million) in further compensation for the late 2020 decision to cull the entire mink stock in the Scandinavian country in a bid to stop the transmission of COVID-19 in the animals.

The mink breeders are not happy with the compensation they already received after all mink in Denmark were terminated in November-December last year and want the state to make further amends for the skins they had been unable to sell.

According to the 2020 compensation agreement, the farmers received DKK 250 ($38) per skin. This autumn, however, the prise rose to DKK 323 ($49). Thus, the mink breeders maintain they have been sold short $11 on each skin.

“The animals that were culled last year in November were to be sold in 2021. So you should get 2021 prices”, Mink breeder Jens Jensen explained their stance to TV2. “My livelihood is closed. I am not allowed to produce skins again. So therefore it should be fair. We must get the right price, neither more nor less than we are entitled to,” he added.

Compensation for the destroyed skins is but a part of a broader remuneration package agreed upon by the Danish parliament following the cull and the subsequent closure of the entire mink fur industry in the country last year.

The entire deal is worth some DKK 19 billion (nearly $2.9 million), part of which has already been paid out according the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, and was presented as a record settlement by the Danish government.

Liberal-conservative Venstre party food spokesman Erling Bonnesen, who took part in talks over the original compensation package, explained that the price had been calculated based on available market information at the time.

“So there’s a retrospective rationalisation here based on price trends and market trends. But this must be decided in court,” Bonnesen said.

In a decision that continues to haunt the ruling Social Democrats, around 15 million farmed mink were culled after a mutation COVID-19 was detected in the animals in the autumn of 2020. The cull was ordered due to health authorities' concerns that the mutation could render human vaccines ineffective.

Further plot twists to the mink saga include bloated rotting carcasses dubbed “zombie mink” appearing from their graves dug too shallow and the authorities deciding to exhume and incinerate them for fear of water pollution.

Numerous Danish analysts called the recent local election “voters' punishment” as the Social Democrats had their worst showing in decades, most embarrassingly, losing its stance in Copenhagen.