Our drone investigation reveals mink cull for COVID-19 at Italian farm

© Essere Animali

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Our drone investigation reveals mink cull for COVID-19 at Italian farm



Simone Montuschi
President

After many days of surveillance our drone captured exclusive and dramatic images of the mass cull of 28.000 minks inside a farm in Capralba, near Cremona.

Just like in Denmark, the animals have been killed with gas and thrown in a container using a tractor. These horrible and sad images have been featured on national Tv at Tg1, seen by almost 5 million italians.

The decision to cull all animals has been ordered after the Minister of Health decided on November 4th that all minks in farms with positive cases of Covid-19 should be killed. In this farm, caging almost half of the minks of the country, 3 minks tested positive to Coronavirus in the last months.

Since April, when the first SARS-CoV-2 infection was reported in the Netherlands in a mink and subsequently in a mink farm worker, it has been established that human-to-mink and mink-to-human transmission can occur.

«This footage, with thousands of dead bodies thrown away like trash, generates understandable outrage, but we want to remind that thousands minks have been killed every December in this same farm for years, and that in 7 more mink farms in Italy in these days these animals are being similarly gassed. The only difference is their pelts will be used by the fur industry, while the dead minks in Capralba are going to be incinerated for public safety reasons. A ban on fur farming in Italy is needed, now more than ever.» comments Simone Montuschi, president of Essere Animali

Watch the video investigation

Mink farms are a threat to public health

Minks positive to Coronavirus have been found inside farms in the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, United States, Poland, Greece, France, Sweden, Lithuania and Italy, while seven countries are reporting mink-related Sars-CoV-2 mutations in humans, according to scientific analysis.

Many european countries have already banned mink and fur farming, with Hungary recently announcing a preventive ban on mink, fox and ferret farming due to ‘public health concerns of zoonotic diseases’.

Italy is one of the last european countries still allowing fur farming

Italy is one of the last european countries with no restrictions on fur farming. Essere Animali has campaigned for a ban since the release of the first ever Italian fur farming investigation, revealing cruel conditions and killing of minks, back in 2013. Similar footage has repeatedly been obtained with hidden cameras and undercover workers since then. This is the right moment to stop forever an archaic activity that is both extremely cruel to animals and a threat to public health.

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