Released mink leave Dalsbú farm facing total loss

Dalsbú, a mink farm in Mosfellsdal, has suffered what its owner describes as a total loss after unknown people released most of the animals, mbl.is reports.

Owner Ásgeir Pétursson said the farm’s breeding records had effectively been destroyed. He said some mink were still moving around inside the farm’s fences, but that none had entered traps outside the fences in recent days.

Ásgeir said he had not counted the mink that had been killed, but their carcasses filled three containers kept in cold storage. The farm had captured many animals, particularly pups that were outside the barn.

Animals that could not be captured easily were euthanised, he said. If they had come into contact with wild animals, the farm could face the risk of plasmacytosis, which Ásgeir said would mean the end of the farm.

The main problem now is that the surviving animals have been placed together in cages where they had not previously lived together. As a result, the farm no longer knows the animals’ pedigrees, ages or family connections.

Ásgeir said this created a serious problem for breeding. Farmers could place a brown male with a brown female without knowing whether the animals were related, he said. “The damage is total,” he said.