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| Fifth Column |
| 15,000 mink "liberated" in Spain |
| 2006-10-16 |
| The hunt was still on for thousands of mink which were let out of farms by radical animal rights activists. Activists let 15,000 out of farms near La Coruña over the weekend. By Monday, about 70 per cent had been recaptured but 4,000 were still missing. Of those who had been recaptured, 3,000 had died. Manuel Vázquez, regional government environmental consultant, said criminals had broken into three mink farms in Oza dos RÃos, A Baña y Muros. The animal is bred for fur coats and cosmetics. Farm owners said they could not survive in the wild and most would die within three days. The Civil Guard said it appeared animal rights activists or ecologists had mounted an organised raid on the farms. Vazquez said this did "nothing positive" for the animals. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #12 I knew of an individual who lived out in the woods, and kept a pair of wolverines in his fenced front yard. Vicious, nasty, aggressive critters, who would stay hidden until they attacked. He did this because even if he took off for a couple of days, some jackass would jump into his front yard hoping to break into his cabin. After the 10th or so break-in, he had had it. Usually he could tell if he had visitors by the swatches of bloody clothing he saw in the yard. He really became fond of those two wolverines, though they never returned any affection or gratitude. He didn't mind, it wasn't in their job description. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-10-16 20:46 |
| #11 Yes, it would be fun if they ran into Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons. Follow the link for the whole story. Katherine Hitton looked out the window and thought to herself, "Forty-two days before I go to market and it's a welcome day that I get there and hear the jig of a music." Oh, to walk on market day, And see my people proud and gay! She breathed deeply of the air. She loved the gray hills—though in her youth she had seen many other worlds. And then she turned back into the building to the animals and the duties which awaited her. She was the only Mother Hitton and these were her littul kittons. She moved among them. She and her father had bred them from Earth mink, from the fiercest, smallest, craziest little minks that had ever been shipped out from Manhome. The lives of the minks had been shaped to keep away other predators who might bother the sheep on whom the stroon grew. But these minks were born mad. Generations of them had been bred psychotic to the bone. They lived only to die and they died so that they could stay alive. These were the kittons of Norstrilia. Animals in whom fear, rage, hunger, and sex were utterly intermixed; who could eat themselves or each other; who could eat their young, or people, or anything organic; animals who screamed with murder-lust when they felt love; animals born to loathe themselves with a fierce and livid hate and who survived only because their waking moments were spent on couches, strapped tight, claw by claw, so that they could not hurt each other or themselves. Mother Hitton let them waken only a few moments in each lifetime. They bred and killed. She wakened them only two at a time. All that afternoon she moved from cage to cage. The sleeping animals slept well. The nourishment ran into their blood streams; they lived sometimes for years without awaking. She bred them when the males were only partly awakened and the females aroused only enough to accept her veterinary treatments. She herself had to pluck the young away from their mothers as the sleeping mothers begot them. Then she nourished the young through a few happy weeks of kittonhood, until their adult natures began to take, their eyes ran red with madness and heat, and their emotions sounded in the sharp, hideous, little cries they uttered through the building; and the twisting of their neat, furry faces, the rolling of their crazy, bright eyes, and the tightening of their sharp, sharp claws. |
| Posted by: bruce 2006-10-16 19:08 |
| #10 Farm raised mink have few natural instincts Maybe. But you might be surprised at the instincts that are lying dormant. Case in point: a Best in Show Whippet who got out of her cage at JFK in the wintertime. Scat and tracks show that this "pampered show dog" from an internationally aclaimed show line, with no coat and little body fat, figured out how to feed quite successfully on local critters for months before her signs disappeared in an area with humans. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-10-16 18:55 |
| #9 LoL tu3031! Mine would grab a gun and find them herself. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2006-10-16 18:12 |
| #8 Farm raised mink have few natural instincts. Most will starve to death if not recaptured. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-10-16 16:04 |
| #7 What these assholes have really done is sentence thousands of mink to death. There is neither the habitat nor the food supply to support all of or even a portion of these animals within their newfound territory. As noted by others, they have also sentenced to death countless other creatures in the area which are at the mercy of these ravenous little killing machines. Someone needs to come up with a new term for these folks. Ayn Rand aptly called them "anti-industrialists". |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-10-16 15:59 |
| #6 Mink are nasty killers. And ferocious, too. I had a friend who lived out in the boonies and had a tough, seasoned dog protecting his property. The one animal that ever got the best of him was a mink - made him turn tail and run like a whupped puppy. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-10-16 15:18 |
| #5 Someone needs to come up with a new term for these folks. Calling them "animal rights" activists implies animals actually have rights, and gives up way too much intellectual territory. How about "Terrorists of the Darwinian Brotherhood" or some suitable alternative? |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-10-16 14:45 |
| #4 Does anyone remember the Cordwainer Smith story, Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons? |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2006-10-16 14:40 |
| #3 Mink are nasty killers. Expect to see a lot of dead animals in the vicinity: birds, domestic cats, snakes, pretty much anything they can sink their teeth into. They are one of the few animals that will kill for the pleasure of it and then leave the carcass untouched. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-10-16 13:35 |
| #2 Animal rights activists stole some mink again? *sigh* |
| Posted by: Korora 2006-10-16 13:23 |
| #1 Glad I'm not over there. My wife'd send me out and make me stay out until I ran over enough of the little bastards to make her a coat. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-10-16 13:20 |