Ireland’s mink population to be culled for being perfectly healthy.

Halenvaneddie

There are so many , many things that don’t add up about this “pandemic”
Might as well kill a load of mink too

jace_da_face

MrMusician18 wrote: »

I'm usually all for the restrictions but this does seem excessive. There is no evidence that the mutant strain or indeed any strain has reached Irish minks.

A more proportionate measure would be to biosecure the farms.

If we can’t prevent the virus from entering nursing homes, do you think the mink farms would fare better?

gozunda

The_Brood wrote: »

I would truly like to hear one, - any - but even one person try defend the human race when the aliens decide to exterminate us. We are the harbingers of death, the exterminators of species. Since we deem it fit to carry out genocide on animals, what moral argument can be made against aliens who deem us too dangerous to exist and decide to take us out? Spoiler alert for the ultimate mysteries of existence: We are not the good guys. Whoever/whatever is or isn't out there, collectively, we are not the good guys.

What logic says invading aliens would be in anyway morally superior to us? Why would they turn up like some intergalactic Judge Judy TV show?

Aliens arriving here ard just as likley to take and plunder what they can and feck off. Or make off with all our crops and farmed animals for themselves. And probably result in doing pretty much the same as what happens in the industrial production of crops which results in millions of wild animals and other organisms being killed during cultivation and harvesting. And no the majority of crops aren't grown for animals - as farm animals, pets, horses etc get fed the left overs of the human food industry when they're not eating grass or similar. Not too sure what the aliens would do with the left overs...

Are we bad guys or the good guys? I'd reckon its nowhere as black or white as that tbh. What we are - is the dominant species on the planet atm. I'm sure we won't be the last....

_Brian

CalamariFritti wrote: »

Whats the difference between farming a mink and any other animal?
They're all caged up drugged up and generally speaking treated diabolically until killed at its most profitable point. They're all the same, mink, pigs, cows chicken you name it.

What a load of auld rubbish.
All a post like this does is show that the poster has no rational bone in their body.

People should go educate themselves. Farming standards are extremely high in Ireland. Use of cages is rare across the board. Use of drugs in farming is highly regulated here.

CalamariFritti

_Brian wrote: »

What a load of auld rubbish.
All a post like this does is show that the poster has no rational bone in their body.

People should go educate themselves. Farming standards are extremely high in Ireland. Use of cages is rare across the board. Use of drugs in farming is highly regulated here.

I'm sorry that came out wrong. I didnt mean to question farming standards. I do believe they are high and I didnt mean to say that animals are mistreated or so.

I meant it more on a different level.

Even if pigs sat on silk cushions drinking beer they're still being raised captive to be slaughtered asap. It is what it is and how could it be different I dont know. I eat meat myself. Just saying from the pigs point of view its pretty crap - short life in concentration camp basically.

And whether you're a pig or a mink there isn't really much of a difference.

_Brian

CalamariFritti wrote: »

I'm sorry that came out wrong. I didnt mean to question farming standards. I do believe they are high and I didnt mean to say that animals are mistreated or so.

I meant it more on a different level.

Even if pigs sat on silk cushions drinking beer they're still being raised captive to be slaughtered asap. It is what it is and how could it be different I dont know. I eat meat myself. Just saying from the pigs point of view its pretty crap - short life in concentration camp basically.

And whether you're a pig or a mink there isn't really much of a difference.

That’s a far cry from the mistruths of your initial post.

I’m no fan of hyper intense farming myself, but even that is highly regulated and adheres to strict standards. The likes of Antibiotic usage in Ireland is very very low across the board.

Our cattle are at grass nearly all the time, we’re having a heifer butchered are the moment and she was only maybe 3 weeks indoors in her life and for that time she ate grass silage. Never had antibiotics etc.
Our pigs for the freezer are free to roam and root outside when they please. And the chickens similar but are shut in at night to save from the Fox.

Mink are predators, caging them is torture to their natural instinct. Housing cattle for example to stop poaching ground when it’s wet, cattle are content and relaxed when in good clean housing, pigs similarly, being confined in good environment doesn’t stress them at all.

46 Long

CalamariFritti wrote: »

I'm sorry that came out wrong. I didnt mean to question farming standards. I do believe they are high and I didnt mean to say that animals are mistreated or so.

I meant it more on a different level.

Even if pigs sat on silk cushions drinking beer they're still being raised captive to be slaughtered asap. It is what it is and how could it be different I dont know. I eat meat myself. Just saying from the pigs point of view its pretty crap - short life in concentration camp basically.

And whether you're a pig or a mink there isn't really much of a difference.

No reason we can't have a thriving free-range pork industry. All of our beef and lamb is free-range. Free-range chicken is available in every supermarket in the country and free-range eggs have about 40% market share. People are willing to pay for quality produce.

Roadtoad

I thought they were all for the high jump anyway.

Wasn't 2025 to be the close-out year? So its only advancing the programme by four years.

The security at the one near me is pretty impressive, cameras, remote controlled gates etc. Way more than a traditional farm.

Graces7

YEP

And worse.

I was living near the mink releases. Which were happening way before 2010

One of my cats came in with a weird wound. Literally a wound behind her ear. No longer bleeding.

My farmer-neighbour took one look. " She's been holed by a mink!"

As he explained, mink attack sleeping lambs, pierce a hole into a large vein ie behind the ear, and suck the blood. The lambs usually die. My cat was not young and lived on, but the hole never healed until the day before she died,

When I started keeping hens and had a coop like Fort Knox. mink got in, tore the heads off them all. Ate nothing; I think just sucked the blood? As with the lambs? That would explain the prolific killings without eating?

It is not their fault. it is how they are made. But we do not have the ecology that can balance them out. They swim so the water bird nests are not safe.

They have been in Ireland since the 1950s and are escape artists. Bad news whichever way you look at it. Unless you are a mink farmer of course :rolleyes:

Have a look at wildlifemanagement.ie/mink/

Oh the authorities " "promised" nearly 20 years ago to close mink farming down; maybe this is one good thing covid-19 will effect . Empty promises. As usual. Any word from the SPCA on mink farming? No? Why does that not surprise...

One sneeze or cough from an infected but asymptomatic farm worker in those grossly overcrowded places? Then it mutates, and reinfects a worker?

It is the cruellest place imaginable for any critter. Utter savagery.
Six months of crated cruelty.

And yes, they gas them. A motorbike with the exhaust pipe feeding into a sealed crate does it. An undignified and cruel ending for critters . All for the love of money. For vanity items.

Not sure of their life span but thinking they were mixed genders released? So we are stuck with them now.

Let us hope that the closings and banning are carried through swiftly now.

dodderangler wrote: »

No they dont. Killin an entire chicken coop, eating heads and neck off some and legging it isn't a animal that stores food

Graces7

46 Long wrote: »

No reason we can't have a thriving free-range pork industry. All of our beef and lamb is free-range. Free-range chicken is available in every supermarket in the country and free-range eggs have about 40% market share. People are willing to pay for quality produce.

Many are not able. The reason many stop eating meat is often financial

Graces7

riffmongous wrote: »

Maybe it planned to come back later and get some more, you can't know tbh

See my post. They suck and drink blood. They seem to be uninterested in the flesh. And any critter that kills to return hides the prey.

Foxes also have killing sprees in chicken houses. Blood lust.

Graces7

MrMusician18 wrote: »

I'm usually all for the restrictions but this does seem excessive. There is no evidence that the mutant strain or indeed any strain has reached Irish minks.

A more proportionate measure would be to biosecure the farms.

We cannot even manage that with nursing homes :rolleyes: As they were going to close mink farming down anyways, now is the right time.

To prevent it ..

Graces7

gozunda wrote: »

"As a rule we don't farm carnivorous animals for food primarily for these reasons.

Some people do eat bushmeat and other backstreet type foods "

Which is how covid-19 got into humanity ….

joeguevara

Nothing prepared me for the look of devastation on the faces of relatives that had to cull entire herds of cattle whose bloodline was raised for generations because of the outbreak of foot and mouth. Carcasses on bonfires left the toughest men I know bent over crying.

Not one of them ever were bitter or angry as they knew that it was necessary and right. Anyone who is arguing about minks being culled because of the risk of mutation and more virulent virus is either misinformed, confused or something else.

Firstly, minks are kept in horrendous conditions only to be slaughtered. In the wild they are vermin and really nasty creatures. It’s similar to a cull on rats if weils disease was spreading through society.

Graces7

joeguevara wrote: »

Nothing prepared me for the look of devastation on the faces of relatives that had to cull entire herds of cattle whose bloodline was raised for generations because of the outbreak of foot and mouth. Carcasses on bonfires left the toughest men I know bent over crying.

Not one of them ever were bitter or angry as they knew that it was necessary and right. Anyone who is arguing about minks being culled because of the risk of mutation and more virulent virus is either misinformed, confused or something else.

Firstly, minks are kept in horrendous conditions only to be slaughtered. In the wild they are vermin and really nasty creatures. It’s similar to a cull on rats if weils disease was spreading through society.

Thank you for putting this in proportion.

I was teaching in rural Cheshire in that big Foot and Mouth outbreak in the UK.

Driving meant windows closed and even then smoke from burning cattle infiltrated the car.

we can and must prevent any new massive infection now. And at the same time protect our own environment.

NB the mink by the way are not to blame. They cannot help what they are and in the right environment they have a place, and also they are preyed on; wolves etc.

The ones to blame are the mink farmers and the "liberators" Although the battle was probably lost way before that as there were escapees as far back as the 1960s

( been reading online and wikipaedia et all are well up to speed on this) Fascinating ..

un5byh7sqpd2x0

whisky_galore wrote: »

Who the fcuk wears mink coats these days anyway? How is there demand for it?

I only wear mink underwear

46 Long

Graces7 wrote: »

[/B]
Many are not able. The reason many stop eating meat is often financial

Sure, and this is why we have (and will always have) some degree of intensive meat production.

That said, we do subsidize meat production and a free-range Irish chicken can be had for a fiver in the supermarkets. Not a bad deal when you consider that would feed someone for the best part of a week.

Phoebas

Gavin Bewildered Vegetation wrote: »

I only wear mink underwear

Shoving a live mink down your trousers doesn't count as underwear.

breezy1985

breezy1985 wrote: »

Damn imminkants

Coming over here stealing our birds!

Graces7

46 Long wrote: »

Sure, and this is why we have (and will always have) some degree of intensive meat production.

That said, we do subsidize meat production and a free-range Irish chicken can be had for a fiver in the supermarkets. Not a bad deal when you consider that would feed someone for the best part of a week.

By then....unless you have a fridge and freezer etc... . and many do not agree with intensive meat production. ( or any meat production )

But not eating much meat is healthier anyways.

Mink have no choice. It is their innate nature.

46 Long

Graces7 wrote: »

By then....unless you have a fridge and freezer etc... . and many do not agree with intensive meat production. ( or any meat production )

But not eating much meat is healthier anyways.

Mink have no choice. It is their innate nature.

Everyone has a fridge and freezer, even those living in shared accommodation or the most squalid bedsits. It's mandatory for landlords to provide one, along with an oven, microwave and access to a washing machine. If you're not renting and can't afford a fridge you should be able to get to apply for an exceptional needs payment.

Hoboo

dodderangler wrote: »

No they dont. Killin an entire chicken coop, eating heads and neck off some and legging it isn't a animal that stores food

Might not look that way to you, but it is.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Whatever we feel about the Mink cull we need to acknowledge that an end to Mink farming was a part of the programme for government.

It's going to happen in the near future so it might as well be done when it presents a reduction of risk benefiting the public health.

DellyBelly

It's all very cruel poor little critters. Be great if someone could manage to release some.. Even by accident ��

odyssey06

DellyBelly wrote: »

It's all very cruel poor little critters. Be great if someone could manage to release some.. Even by accident ��

Not for the local wildlife it wouldn't be... they are an invasive species to Ireland.
Can't just drop them into an unprepared eco-system.
It is all very cruel but there are no happy endings for these minks, cull or no cull

whisky_galore

DellyBelly wrote: »

It's all very cruel poor little critters. Be great if someone could manage to release some.. Even by accident ��

No it fúcking wouldn't.

CIARAN_BOYLE

DellyBelly wrote: »

It's all very cruel poor little critters. Be great if someone could manage to release some.. Even by accident ��

We have different definitions of the word cruel. To me releasing animals in the wild that have never fed themselves before is cruel.

They would starve pretty quickly. Especially carnivous animals like Mink.

Montage of Feck

DellyBelly wrote: »

It's all very cruel poor little critters. Be great if someone could manage to release some.. Even by accident ��

I hope your not being serious. Mink are an invasive species that have already done serious harm to our native "critters", thanks to idiotic do gooders, without releasing more.

whisky_galore

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

They would starve pretty quickly. Especially carnivous animals like Mink.

They certainly would not. People are being naive, the devastation these things can do to native wildlife.

Montage of Feck

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

We have different definitions of the word cruel. To me releasing animals in the wild that have never fed themselves before is cruel.

They would starve pretty quickly. Especially carnivous animals like Mink.

They wouldn't starve, they're basically an apex predator that we eat whatever native species they come across.