I released 2,000 minks from a fur farm. Now I'm a convicted terrorist

[lordsummerisle]

People usually laugh when I tell them I am a convicted terrorist.

I try not to open with that – it seems a little bit forward. First, I explain how my friend Tyler and I entered a fur farm in the dead of night. I describe the unspeakable suffering we found there. I tell people how Tyler and I opened every single cage and released 2,000 mink to save their lives.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/15/i-released-2000-minks-fur-farm-convicted-terrorist

[MineralMan]

1. Those minks died.

Releasing captive animals in such a wholesale way does not save their lives. Just the opposite. Most of them died of starvation. I have zero respect for such actions, which accomplish nothing and end up dooming the released animals to a tortured death.

And that's my opinion.

[Docreed2003]

5. This! My opinion as well!

[Shrike47]

8. Yep. The goal might have been good but the results wouldn't be pretty.

[Kirk Lover]

13. Either way they were tortured. Perhaps you should look at what deplorable conditions these

minks are kept in of course all for money. Starvation was a kindness. So at least these 'farmers' didn't make their blood money.

[Not Ruth]

26. Starvation is rarely a kindness

I cannot imagine a worse way to go

[Crunchy Frog]

14. If any of them don't die, they become unnatural predators

and can become a major threat to native species.

It's lose lose all the way.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

35. This

eom

[Hekate]

30. My opinion as well

[Drahthaardogs]

32. Of course they did

Probably starved to death. Terrorist? Nah. Idiot? Most definitely.

[Puzzledtraveller]

37. Excellent point

[hack89]

2. If not a terrorist then definitely an industrial grade moron. nt

[Archae]

3. I put this guy in with the other terrorists...

He's an asshole.

Those are domesticated minks, they will return to the farm, or get hit on roads, or preyed on by local predators.
Others will starve to death.

Real nature is not Disney's "Bambi" which is where these assholes get their views on nature.

[Amishman]

24. This, releasing them was a spectacularly stupid action

I have trouble feeling sympathy for idiots.

[anneboleyn]

34. MFE. They are domesticated animals and will be slaughtered by predators/starve to death. I wish

they had gone the route of reporting the farm for abuse and/or bringing attention to the abuse via targeted social media and old-style media campaigns. Do whatever possible to bring attention to the abuse. But abusing the animals yourself because you have a hopelessly childlike understanding of how these poor minks will function when suddenly thrust into the wild is really appalling.


The minks get hurt in this situation as well! The general abuse of minks doesn't stop as the farm collects on insurance and simply gets more minks, nobody sees the mink abuse and changes their mind about buying fur, and the perps have a serious criminal record as a "terrorist" (which I also don't find cute or funny as the article writer seems to think)


Putting the animals, the already suffering animals who have learned helplessness because of their caged condition, out into the wild -- setting them " free" is the kind of dumb language that kids use that ignores the realities these animals will face once "free" (the animal world is NOT Disneyland!!!)

[democratisphere]

4. The fur business needs to be eliminated permanently.

[Blue_true]

11. Then.

Don't buy furs and convince friends and family not to buy, have those people work on convincing more people. No or low demand will kill the fur trade.

[NCTraveler]

17. So will legislation.

The conservative(personal individual responsibility) approach will always fail when it comes to animals.

[Blue_true]

21. Attempts to legistlate this type of stuff has failed over and over.

Removing demand kills it dead.

[NCTraveler]

22. There has actually been legislation that has had very positive impacts.

From everything to farming to wearing fur.

"Removing demand kills it dead."

You method would never remove demand. Mine would at least make it illegal. You can still ask criminals not to buy. I'm not trying to stop you.

[MineralMan]

12. Eliminate demand or pass laws prohibiting

farm-type raising of fur animals. That is the answer to that dilemma.

[Drahthaardogs]

33. If you eat meat or wear leather, I find your argument

Ridiculous. If you don't, I simply don't agree

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Prosecuting it as terrorism is just as dumb as releasing clueless animals in the first place.

Everyone gets a medal in this story!

[phylny]

7. On a positive note, we have mink that frolic on the rip rap (rocks) of our shoreline.

The first time we saw them, we had NO idea what they were. They're very entertaining.

[dembotoz]

9. I want so much to cheer the release but alas, I can't.

If there was a no kill shelter they were released to.. maybe

[MineralMan]

15. There are no such shelters for fur bearers.

They do not exist. These are not pets. Minks are bad-tempered predators. They are also lone predators, not pack animals. They should not be raised for their fur, nor should they be kept in captivity. In the wild, a single mink has a fairly large territory that provides adequate prey. There are already populations of wild mink that are in tune with the available habitat. That habitat can't really support any more of them.

It's an unnatural sort of process, raising mink for their fur. An ugly process.

Here is the natural range of mink in North America. They exist in many states in the wild:

[NCTraveler]

18. One heck of a wide climate range. Thanks. nt.

[Blue_true]

10. You comitted a crime.

Why didn't you raise money to buy the minks? The farmer had invested money in them and was looking to make a profit. I don't wear animal skin products, but I accept that there are people that do. There are positive and negative ways to make change, you chose a negative root that likely resulted in a lot of dead minks.

[Kaleva]

16. He made sure 2000 minks would die a slow death

Idiot.

[hunter]

19. I know some polar bears who need saving, Kevin.

Perhaps you'd like to go talk to them about animal rights.

Idiots like Kevin Thompson are in the same class of people who abandon dogs and cats in the countryside to be run over by cars, starved, killed or maimed by coyotes and other native wildlife, shot by ranchers... as if that's somehow better than dropping them off at the animal shelter. (All our dogs are animal shelter mutts, adopted as adults, not as cute puppies.)

My wife's parent's live in a very rural area bordering a national forest and they see too many abandoned pets.

If you want to end the fur business, go after the people who wear fur. Change public opinion, make it unfashionable.

On a larger scale, expose the inhumane practices of factory farms. I've got some respect for people who do that, at some risk to themselves. Some progress has been made in the California chicken egg industry.

One of my own quixotic quests is to make many sorts of commercially caught fish unfashionable. I oppose certain sorts of salmon farming too, but I'd be an environmentally clueless moron like Kevin if I released farm raised salmon into the wild...

http://www.seafoodwatch.org/

[3_Limes]

20. And I'm OK with that.

No matter what you think about fur farming, crime isn't the answer. Not a single good thing came from this crime, and if that label is the punishment, I guess it was earned.

I really don't want to be callous, but there's not much grey here.

[Bradical79]

23. The charge and law are ridiculous

But what he did was certainly criminal, stupid, still cruel to the minks, and possibly damaging to the ecosystem. These sorts of "activists" are idiots. Some want to act hero, but don't want to think.

[jmowreader]

25. What happened to the bird population in that area over the last four years?

The mink that DIDN'T get killed by cars or bobcats needed to eat, and one of their favorite things to eat is birds' eggs.

[defacto7]

27. Sounds like best of intentions, wrong plan,

ends in the worst of outcomes.

[lindysalsagal]

28. Obviously, you haven't seen the destruction they do to winter homes: $$$ wasted.

They terrorize whole areas, get into basements atticks floor boards and stuff rotting fish, and whatever. They crap all over everything, carry disease, and aren't the least bit afraid of humans. I've thrown brooms and rakes at them out on our deck and they just look at me. Totally unafraid.

You can't bait and capture them, you can't shoot them.

Horrible little monsters.

[Codeine]

29. Nobody is right in this story.

The fur ranchers/animal torturer fucks are Grade A assholes who profit on the torment and pain of living creatures, the guy that released the minks is a dumbshit who doesn't understand that he's made himself feel better by trading one shitty, agonizing death for another, and the government are complete moronic shitheads for the unmitigated gall and inconceivable audacity of labeling this as terrorism.

Terrorism? Fuckin' really? GTFO.

I understand where the dude is coming from, really I do. But this sort of "direct action" is rarely the solution.

And seriously, any asshole that wears fur needs a serious fucking ass beating.

[Coventina]

31. I hate it that fur has become socially acceptable again.

One moron actually came to a Morrissey concert wearing a fur coat.

We need more public dousing with red paint, like in the good ole days of the 80s.



on edit: typo due to rage.

[flvegan]

36. Agreed that the AETA is mostly horseshit. However

not thrilled with Kevin Johnson being the "spokesperson" for that. Not the best track record, if you ask me. Folks here should actually read the article, maybe look into what the AETA is all about. I'm not advocating the release of 2000 mink into the wild (or, more recently, 40,000 into the wild), I just think "terrorism" is the wrong crime or brand.

BTW, I think one person in this thread so far got it right. Roughly 1600 of the freed mink were recaptured. They didn't all die, nor did they destroy the environment and kill all the birds, thankfully.

As I understand it, the East Fork Mink Ranch is no longer in business. So there's that...