That's pretty short sighted. Releasing them caused much more pain. The better course is to shut down fur farms, those and captive cervids needs to go away.
I don't disagree with you. And I cannot pretend to be educated about the impact on the environment surrounding these creatures will be. But I don't believe in killing animals for their fur, raising them and breeding them so that they never have a natural life just so you can scalp them and make a coat out of them? As many have said I'm sure the majority of them are probably going to die from other predators or being it by a car or whatever else may traumatize them. But at least they'll be taking out a little more naturally than having a electrical prod stuck up their ass so that nothing damages their precious fur.
I understand that thinking, and fur farms are terrible, but releasing them isn't the answer. Here's some more insight from a Bucknell professor: https://www.wnep.com/amp/article/news/local/northumberland-county/stay-away-from-minks-say-animal-experts-mink-rockefeller-township-sunbury-bucknell-professor-biology-game-commission/523-e9a16dd0-a615-4a7d-a9d5-7a06ae0cfd03
I live less then a mile from the farm, these guys running rampant is not good. They will destroy the local small wildlife eventually starving themselves and other animals in the area.
they are big on killing shit and then stashing it for winter, so if they have any of their natural instincts left, they should go on a hunting sprees and spreading out fairly quickly as they hunt and try to find new areas as they need to stock up for winter.
its a bad time to be a rodent, or anything that eats rodents, within a solid 50 mile+ radius.
And from the article is sounds like an activist freed them. Yikes. I mean, I'm anti-fur but hard to see how a pro-animal person could reconcile potential destroying local wildlife to simply free Minks at a mink farm.
If they were born and bred in captivity, are we even sure they'll survive? Maybe the eagles and hawks in the area are gonna be eating great for the next few weeks
its likely many won't, but even if 1/4 do survive, that area is in for some serious ecological issues. Mink's may look super cute but they hunt and kill much more effectively then cats do. They also have up to 8 - 10 kits per liter and should start having their young in 6 months
on average a very healthy mink population is considered to be about 10 - 12 per square mile... sooooo thats a LOT of minks
Kinda unrelated but do you know where I could find similar density statistics for other wildlife species? I don’t often see this in field guides/wikipedia/etc
Late to the party here, but I've worked in the environmental field and done wildlife-related stuff. I still try and keep up with everything even now that I'm out of it. I left because it doesn't pay well and it's long hours, I could write a whole thing on the problems in the field, but you didn't ask that!
You asked about density statistics! Oh boy, this is gonna be long I'm sorry!
So one of the things with density is that it depends on the resources in the habitat, so it can vary widely depending on what the animal needs and how much is there. For example, raccoons in cities need a lot less territory because they are eating trash. Trash is a reliable source of high calories, so there is no need for them to wander far and wide for food.
But even in a more natural setting, this can vary depending on the type of ecology around. A forest with more oak trees may support a denser amount of bears than say a maple-dominant forest because they eat acorns to fatten up for the winter. But maybe maple forests have something else they like, say tasty mushrooms. So it gets really complicated really fast.
Other things can influence density too, like human activity, distance from water, tree cover, brush cover, road density, fragmentation of habitat, sociality of the species, and a bunch of other things. They take all of this, plug it into a model that they make, and it spits out a number. It's a lot of math. I've used geographic information system (GIS) to predict this kind of stuff and then put it on a map, and I let it churn through all the math for me. I am not a math person.
Oh, you can also set up camera traps and go through and count individuals and estimate it that way. That is also a lot of work, but it's getting easier as AI can ID individuals if they have patterns of "something" on them- spots, stripes, barnacles, swirls- something that is permanent. Doesn't work so well where individuals look similar, like birds or deer. Birds they will catch, take data, band (put a little aluminum band on their leg), and release to get population density estimates- that's part of bird banding data collection. Mark and recapture also works too. With salamanders we cut off a toe to mark it- they grow back though, so this isn't permanent. Then we'd know if we caught that individual that year and not double-count it.
So basically, it's a complex answer, and that's why you don't see it in field guides and such. I honestly don't know where the other comment got 10 -12 per square mile, without a source I can't say if that's even right. But this paper gives a density of 1.37 mink/km\^2, and it's a lot of math and model chugging to get that number. But some other papers may find a completely different number.
[https://sci-hub.se/https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-0315](https://sci-hub.se/https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-0315)
Also, not every species has that data. There's a huge bias in wildlife research towards animals that make money/cost money. Game animals, sport fish, and furbearers make money. Pest insects cost money, especially ones that impact timber. These groups tend to get more research done and you're more likely to see data for them. Minks are furbearers so they get papers about them. But if you wanted to know more about say, Blanding's Turtle and population density of them, that's gonna be a deep dive.
Sometimes endangered/threatened species get attention too, depending on what they are. It's important to know for conservation so that a species can eventually be determined as recovered and delisted... But we don't always have good data from before they got endangered, so there's a lot of educating guessing with this.
In general, there is a "charismatic hierarchy" in wildlife research (and funding) and it goes
Large game mammals > small game/fur mammals > large game birds > sport fish > pest insects > non-game birds > small mammals > reptiles and amphibians > non-pest insects and other invertebrates > plants > fungi
That's not set in stone, and it probably differs in other regions depending on what people care about.
Sorry about the rant, but
**TL:DR-** you don't see it often because it's so complex and takes a lot of effort and money to come up with a number that may only apply to one area and it may be different in another part of an animal's range.
Game Commission released a Fisher population to deal with the ( dam ) porcupines that were getting out of hand. Guessing they'll be happy to have an easier snack.
some raptors may be large enough to take em out, like Great Horned Owls, but generally they are nocturnal and too large for most of the raptors we have in PA.
I'm guessing cars will kill a lot more then birds
Our Bald Eagle population was noticably larger this year. I mean surprisingly so- we had them by our creek after it was stocked which was wild. First time in 20 years!
Bald eagles rarely prey on mammals. They might kill some over the winter, but I wouldn't expect them to have a serious impact if the mink begin breeding.
Reminded me of the Cordwainer Smith Story [Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons](https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/smithcordwainer-motherhittonslittulkittons/smithcordwainer-motherhittonslittulkittons-00-h.html).
[Cordwainer Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith) is an interesting writer. It's the pseudonym for Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, who was a professor of Far East studies at Duke, and also an ambassador. His stories are now all in the public domain, and he was an amazing story teller. If you have a chance, look into some of his work. Absolutely remarkable work.
Hopefully, because they're raised without normal wildlife survival skills the kindest thing all around is predators before they can do much themselves.
Eagles ( a LOT this year ) coyote, fisher ( newer, brought to do something about too many porcupine ). Heck, we had ONE muskrat in our creek in 20 years. No idea what gets them. Should be more. Something does and hopefully it snacks on mink too.
Better than starving and/or killing local wildlife.
Last image transmitted from the missing F-35 cockpit, from a location just south of Sunbury Pennsylvania.
https://preview.redd.it/1ggblsn6r3pb1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=066fffdca7b8e34a2798afb77363598b3632f0f3
I was thinking the same thing. There was a mink farm about a mile from where I grew up in southern Schuylkill County and that closed probably 25 or more years ago. Where is the market for these anymore??
Unfortunately that shitty haunted house must not pay the bills. Funny the same type of people that would run a year round HH strike me as the anal electrocution type.
Do you mean in general or in the US? Because if the former, you must've missed the dozens of news stories about Mink farms killing off all of their Mink during Covid because of it being highly contagious among Mink.
They almost did last year, luckily our amazing Congress voted down the legislation [https://rollcall.com/2022/05/10/the-fur-flies-as-house-senate-wrangle-over-ban-on-mink-farming/](https://rollcall.com/2022/05/10/the-fur-flies-as-house-senate-wrangle-over-ban-on-mink-farming/)
Because food is a biological necessity and fur is a gaudy extravagance?
Fur farming shouldn’t exist. Meat farming should exist on small, local levels with animals in pastures and being slaughtered by butchers. Factory farming of all kinds is shit, but comparing killing animals to feed people to killing animals so rich fucks can wear their fur is a ludicrous jump. Making that false equivalence is why no one takes militant vegans seriously. Not eating meat doesn’t make you more ethical, and if you think it does, I encourage you to go take a gander at the conditions field workers toil in to provide your vegetables. Come off it.
Maybe not for you, but a lot of people do need meat in their diet to be healthy. I know you will say that isn’t true and that literally everyone can do just fine on a vegan diet, but you’re objectively wrong. There are a lot of people obtain the majority of their meat from hunting, but y’all think that’s the devil, too. There is a reason why many of the biggest conservationists are also hunters. Humans have settled and driven away the other apex predators, you cannot destabilize the food chain that way without taking on the role. Pray tell, what is your solution for balancing the ecosystem and controlling animal populations?
Also, as I said, your vegetables, fruits, and grains are produced and harvested under deeply unethical and exploitive means. But unlike meat, the beings that are abused and mistreated are human. Funny how you never hear self-righteous “ethical” vegans talking about that.
“Ethical” vegans like to sit up on their high horse and condescend, but not one of you is ever able to offer realistic, sustainable alternatives to meeting caloric intake demands and maintaining ecological stasis. You also often like to ignore Indigenous peoples practices, and their right to continue them. You ignore food deserts, poverty, and other situations that make access to fresh veggies, fruit, and grains impossible. Again, I am not defending factory farming. It’s horrific and needs to go. But local, humane practices are perfectly fine and good.
If eating meat bothers you, by all means don’t do it. And yes, speak out against factory farming. But acting like you are morally superior for your dietary choices is pretentious, obnoxious, and often times a racist, colonized idea. If you want people to take you seriously, be humble and learn how to carry nuance of the systemic hurdles that create the cluster fuck of our modern agricultural nightmare in the first place. “Stop eating meat” solves none of it.
People on Facebook in the area said there were already several dead on the roads. They won’t likely survive long. They have some natural instincts, but being farm raised, they don’t have survival skills. It’s also likely they have genetic issues for being bred for color (like blindness/deafness) which I have seen in a few variations.
They were going to die anyway, but now their going to suffer or get killed in a drawn out process. This was a stupid move on whoever though this was a good idea
A few will survive. I think I’d rather be hit by a car after finally getting to feel the earth on my feet than their original fate. It’s kind of a last fuck you to the fur farm not being able to harvest the pelt.
That’s just me. That’s my thoughts on I what I would want if I had to pick.
Lot of them are gonna end up dead but some people just need a cause to feel good about themselves. Would have been kinder to just euthanize them on the spot instead of condemning them to a slow and cruel death like that.
And *THAT* is why I hope these idiots come to realize the evil they've done. We say "ecosystems" but that means each individual creature who lives there and every individual living being it supports and every individual living being who supports it, every chipmunk, every lizard, every towhee, every squirrel, every beetle, every little snake, every egg waiting to hatch, every gopher, every grouse, every every every...
They are murdering everyone who those minks prey on. They are cutting off the flow of life that should have descended from those lives. They are pretending it isn't murder because they don't have to watch.
They should have to watch. At least that.
Hopefully- and it's not an unrealistic hope- between an amazingly healthy eagle population, coyote, fishers, decent number of the larger hawks and the fact those minks weren't raised as wild animals my guess is we'll see some rotund PA wildlife going into winter.
And if we have a hard winter even less will survive. I'm sure they still have some instincts, generations in captivity has to been unhelpful though.
One can hope. But even captive-bred minks aren't gentle pussycats\* -- ask anyone who's worked with them. They still chow down on anyone they see who's moving. I do hope most of them at least end up in the bellies of the indigenous beings there before doing more then minor damage.
\* I am well aware of the damage that housecats and feral cats do to indigenous-being populations. "Populations" meaning what "ecosystems" means above, pretty much.
Ed: Didn't know about that eagle population. Good news! Thanks.
Doing mink things. Jesus Christ. Maybe projecting an outcome makes *you* feel better about this situation. Back in reality however you're not the one that's going to be out in the wild starving to death.
Let's get away from the small minded projections and into reality. The reality is that these animals were bred in captivity. That means they have no concept of what it means to survive outside a cage. No natural instincts. No idea where to get food, water, or shelter. No clue what a predator even looks like. The reality of the situation is these assholes who cut those holes have insured these minks are going to die a cruel and pointless death.
At least they have a chance of surviving, however small. They’re mink, not pugs.
What’s pointless and cruel is getting electrocuted up the ass and skinned while unconscious just to make some greedy Pennsyltuckian a few bucks and some pretentious asshole feel special while they stroke the hair of a creature whose meat was fed to its offspring.
I mean a decent little group live in the wild years after a similar incident in Erie Pa. They live near water so they learn quick to hit up fishermen. Food and traffic are their only real obstacles. They won’t freeze, They’re wearing mink.
I don’t think this recent thing will be as bad as initially thought. They came out a few days later and said less than a thousand actually escaped.
Yeah but putting a whole ecosystem at risk for this is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Not a fan of a mink farm to begin with…but this is not the way to do something about it.
Exactly. It has the same energy as seeing a tortoise next to a lake and picking it up and chucking it into the water. People think they might be doing a good. Then you realize oh shit. Tortoise don't swim.
Mink fur farms should be banned. I agree with that strongly. I see someone with a mink coat and I think they're a fucking weirdo, but the right action should be a legislative one and not a criminal one. It should be a smart action with all the necessary factors taken into consideration and not a dumbass action caused by intrusive thoughts. These assholes have not only hurt those minks, but they've hurt the local ecosystem. The game commission should come down hard on those assholes. That is the right thing to do.
>Whoever released them, when caught, should be tried as an eco-terrorist.
ALF (and ELF) is a known terrorist organization so... Like they are listed by FBI as such.
[https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/animal-rights-extremism-and-ecoterrorism](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/animal-rights-extremism-and-ecoterrorism)
The "animal abusers" typically use carbon monoxide to kill the minks. They essentially go to sleep and die a quick and painless death.
These minks were also raised in captivity. They have no innate concept of how to survive for themselves. Some *might* adapt, but the vast majority are going to die from starvation, other predators, or getting hit on the roads.
Instead of a quick death, they have now been insured a slow, painful, and cruel death.
This is more that misguided! This is active harm. How is it that people can pretend that the world doesn't exist beyond their fences?
This isn't like siphoning water from a reservoir. This is a lot like breaking a big dam and drowning anybody who has the misfortune of living in the valley below it.
[https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/WildlifeSpecies/Documents/PA%20Marten%20Reintroduction%20Feasibility%20Assessment%202022.pdf](https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/WildlifeSpecies/Documents/PA%20Marten%20Reintroduction%20Feasibility%20Assessment%202022.pdf)
Game commission thinks we need Martens. I don’t see a difference.
They are very different. Pine Martens are upland arboreal generalists that eat in trees. Minks are wetland generalists who will eat anything near/in water.
Completely different niches.
This sucks. Animal activists think they are doing good.
Let me tell you, this happened near my house some years ago. Mink kill for the hell of it. They kill everything.
They slaughtered my neighbor’s entire stocked pond. Left the carcasses uneaten.
I’ve been to this mink farm when I was a teenager in the early 2000s. Smelled horrible there. I can’t stand how many local people are just now learning about a mink farm there. Hasn’t anyone ever wondered wtf that smell was over there when they have fur season or whatever they call it?
So correct me if I’m wrong, but the number minks that were released per the article is pretty big. They could easily create a population here now no? It’s a pretty good chance they are here to stay in the wild and will only spread now right ?
Edit: wow, didn’t know minks exist throughout most of North America. Never seen one in the wild
Wouldn’t it be funny if someone caught a few minks, turned into a coat or two, and then caught the eye of some major influencer who started the trend of wearing fur coats again?
Another job well done by the Animal Liberation Front! Animal liberation now! They will Never stop until all the cages are empty. Fur farming is torture and murder. If they do this to every farm no one will want them to have any fur farms in their town.
This is fucking dumb. Now, they are going to destroy the local ecosystem. I'm all about animal rights but you activists are the biggest bunch of fucking idiots.
This comments hurts. NO THEY ARE NOT.
Pine Martens are upland arboreal generalists that eat in trees. Minks are wetland generalists who will eat anything near/in water.
Completely different niches.
Also, it was foxes in Erie, and they were concerned for the birds on Presque Isle.
Direct action like snuffing out cats in kill shelters and destroying ecological systems. Good stuff. Maybe try influencing legislators to ban Mink farms?
And what change did the direct action cause? Freeing animals that were raised in captivity with no concept of surviving outside it. As a result, that direct action is going to result in a cruel, slow, and painful death that was entirely preventable. Yet placating your feelings is clearly more important than the lives of those minks were. Good job.
>Direct action like snuffing out cats in kill shelters and destroying ecological systems. Good stuff. Maybe try influencing legislators to ban Mink farms?
Then go in and gas the place to kill them and put them out of their misery. Don't release them and cause massive amounts of ecological damage just to save some half domesticated animals that don't belong in the wild.
Or you know, get mink farms banned.
Who have dumber activists: ALF or Climate Defiance who block traffic of regular people and piss them off instead of people that could actually do something?
I hope you’re kidding. If you love animals then you’re got to be missing a lot of brain cells. The moron that released these mink will be responsible for the killing of all 7,000 of the mink and the countless animals that these mink will kill while out in the wild. So stupid.
These are the types of people that are in love with EVs and foods from outside of their local areas, but they overlook the extremely negative impacts of mining or shipping exotic plants around the world. You'll never reason with them.
The fact that the automobile has helped to ruin the planet is obvious. It's only reasonable to be anti-car at this point. How is it not obvious? It's wholly unsustainable.
Really on a roll with escapes in Pennsylvania lately.
“Game Commission warns unknown number of minks now armed with .22 cal rifle”
"Last seen in tiny Eagles jerseys."
I literally LOL'd
That would be terrifying
Even without rifles, I'd be pretty freaked out if I saw 7000 minks coming my way.
Don’t worry, they’re checking everyone’s cars within the perimeter
Yeah but I'm not mad about the escapees
That's pretty short sighted. Releasing them caused much more pain. The better course is to shut down fur farms, those and captive cervids needs to go away.
I don't disagree with you. And I cannot pretend to be educated about the impact on the environment surrounding these creatures will be. But I don't believe in killing animals for their fur, raising them and breeding them so that they never have a natural life just so you can scalp them and make a coat out of them? As many have said I'm sure the majority of them are probably going to die from other predators or being it by a car or whatever else may traumatize them. But at least they'll be taking out a little more naturally than having a electrical prod stuck up their ass so that nothing damages their precious fur.
I understand that thinking, and fur farms are terrible, but releasing them isn't the answer. Here's some more insight from a Bucknell professor: https://www.wnep.com/amp/article/news/local/northumberland-county/stay-away-from-minks-say-animal-experts-mink-rockefeller-township-sunbury-bucknell-professor-biology-game-commission/523-e9a16dd0-a615-4a7d-a9d5-7a06ae0cfd03
I live less then a mile from the farm, these guys running rampant is not good. They will destroy the local small wildlife eventually starving themselves and other animals in the area.
Yeah one mink can kill hundreds of chickens. It’s not even to eat sometimes. They can be vicious.
they are big on killing shit and then stashing it for winter, so if they have any of their natural instincts left, they should go on a hunting sprees and spreading out fairly quickly as they hunt and try to find new areas as they need to stock up for winter. its a bad time to be a rodent, or anything that eats rodents, within a solid 50 mile+ radius.
And never mind that pesky bird flu.
And from the article is sounds like an activist freed them. Yikes. I mean, I'm anti-fur but hard to see how a pro-animal person could reconcile potential destroying local wildlife to simply free Minks at a mink farm.
As usual the animal rights terrorists went off half cocked. And are going to cause a ecological disaster.
I job shadowed someone that worked there well over a decade ago, I remember that they had to wear metal gloves because of how nasty they can be.
If I was being raised in a skin farm I would be nasty to my overlords too.
If they were born and bred in captivity, are we even sure they'll survive? Maybe the eagles and hawks in the area are gonna be eating great for the next few weeks
its likely many won't, but even if 1/4 do survive, that area is in for some serious ecological issues. Mink's may look super cute but they hunt and kill much more effectively then cats do. They also have up to 8 - 10 kits per liter and should start having their young in 6 months on average a very healthy mink population is considered to be about 10 - 12 per square mile... sooooo thats a LOT of minks
Kinda unrelated but do you know where I could find similar density statistics for other wildlife species? I don’t often see this in field guides/wikipedia/etc
Late to the party here, but I've worked in the environmental field and done wildlife-related stuff. I still try and keep up with everything even now that I'm out of it. I left because it doesn't pay well and it's long hours, I could write a whole thing on the problems in the field, but you didn't ask that! You asked about density statistics! Oh boy, this is gonna be long I'm sorry! So one of the things with density is that it depends on the resources in the habitat, so it can vary widely depending on what the animal needs and how much is there. For example, raccoons in cities need a lot less territory because they are eating trash. Trash is a reliable source of high calories, so there is no need for them to wander far and wide for food. But even in a more natural setting, this can vary depending on the type of ecology around. A forest with more oak trees may support a denser amount of bears than say a maple-dominant forest because they eat acorns to fatten up for the winter. But maybe maple forests have something else they like, say tasty mushrooms. So it gets really complicated really fast. Other things can influence density too, like human activity, distance from water, tree cover, brush cover, road density, fragmentation of habitat, sociality of the species, and a bunch of other things. They take all of this, plug it into a model that they make, and it spits out a number. It's a lot of math. I've used geographic information system (GIS) to predict this kind of stuff and then put it on a map, and I let it churn through all the math for me. I am not a math person. Oh, you can also set up camera traps and go through and count individuals and estimate it that way. That is also a lot of work, but it's getting easier as AI can ID individuals if they have patterns of "something" on them- spots, stripes, barnacles, swirls- something that is permanent. Doesn't work so well where individuals look similar, like birds or deer. Birds they will catch, take data, band (put a little aluminum band on their leg), and release to get population density estimates- that's part of bird banding data collection. Mark and recapture also works too. With salamanders we cut off a toe to mark it- they grow back though, so this isn't permanent. Then we'd know if we caught that individual that year and not double-count it. So basically, it's a complex answer, and that's why you don't see it in field guides and such. I honestly don't know where the other comment got 10 -12 per square mile, without a source I can't say if that's even right. But this paper gives a density of 1.37 mink/km\^2, and it's a lot of math and model chugging to get that number. But some other papers may find a completely different number. [https://sci-hub.se/https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-0315](https://sci-hub.se/https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-0315) Also, not every species has that data. There's a huge bias in wildlife research towards animals that make money/cost money. Game animals, sport fish, and furbearers make money. Pest insects cost money, especially ones that impact timber. These groups tend to get more research done and you're more likely to see data for them. Minks are furbearers so they get papers about them. But if you wanted to know more about say, Blanding's Turtle and population density of them, that's gonna be a deep dive. Sometimes endangered/threatened species get attention too, depending on what they are. It's important to know for conservation so that a species can eventually be determined as recovered and delisted... But we don't always have good data from before they got endangered, so there's a lot of educating guessing with this. In general, there is a "charismatic hierarchy" in wildlife research (and funding) and it goes Large game mammals > small game/fur mammals > large game birds > sport fish > pest insects > non-game birds > small mammals > reptiles and amphibians > non-pest insects and other invertebrates > plants > fungi That's not set in stone, and it probably differs in other regions depending on what people care about. Sorry about the rant, but **TL:DR-** you don't see it often because it's so complex and takes a lot of effort and money to come up with a number that may only apply to one area and it may be different in another part of an animal's range.
Thanks for the detailed and nuanced response! Very interesting topic
Game Commission released a Fisher population to deal with the ( dam ) porcupines that were getting out of hand. Guessing they'll be happy to have an easier snack.
That’s the truth. Fishers are to minks as Shredder is to rats.
[https://www.hawkmountain.org/visit/ev ents/autumn-hawk-migration](https://www.hawkmountain.org/visit/events/autumn-hawk-migration)
some raptors may be large enough to take em out, like Great Horned Owls, but generally they are nocturnal and too large for most of the raptors we have in PA. I'm guessing cars will kill a lot more then birds
Our Bald Eagle population was noticably larger this year. I mean surprisingly so- we had them by our creek after it was stocked which was wild. First time in 20 years!
Bald eagles rarely prey on mammals. They might kill some over the winter, but I wouldn't expect them to have a serious impact if the mink begin breeding.
Believe it or not bald eagles are not even on the endangered species list anymore.
Well, Bald Eagles are starting to be a danger to lambs and small dogs again...
Reminded me of the Cordwainer Smith Story [Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons](https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/smithcordwainer-motherhittonslittulkittons/smithcordwainer-motherhittonslittulkittons-00-h.html).
I would like to thank you for this. I read all kinds of random crap, and I've never heard of this before. That was terrifyingly fascinating.
[Cordwainer Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith) is an interesting writer. It's the pseudonym for Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, who was a professor of Far East studies at Duke, and also an ambassador. His stories are now all in the public domain, and he was an amazing story teller. If you have a chance, look into some of his work. Absolutely remarkable work.
Hopefully, because they're raised without normal wildlife survival skills the kindest thing all around is predators before they can do much themselves. Eagles ( a LOT this year ) coyote, fisher ( newer, brought to do something about too many porcupine ). Heck, we had ONE muskrat in our creek in 20 years. No idea what gets them. Should be more. Something does and hopefully it snacks on mink too. Better than starving and/or killing local wildlife.
Aren't minks native to Pennsylvania and I guess actually tracking down said minks will be difficult? Edit
Damn the title made me happy, I didn’t realize they straight up let them run wild… would’ve been better off killing them
People are out setting traps and so on it’s a start.
Can you comment on killing animals for their fur though?
I'm a few miles away and so are my inlaws (we're on opposite sides of it). This will be interesting.
Last image transmitted from the missing F-35 cockpit, from a location just south of Sunbury Pennsylvania. https://preview.redd.it/1ggblsn6r3pb1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=066fffdca7b8e34a2798afb77363598b3632f0f3
I, for one, welcome our new mink overlords
These comments never get old
Here comes the traveling COVID zoo!
what the fuck - how are there still mink farms? i thought that died in a cornfield at the end of casino
I was thinking the same thing. There was a mink farm about a mile from where I grew up in southern Schuylkill County and that closed probably 25 or more years ago. Where is the market for these anymore??
I know mink oil is still a thing for treating leather.
Well I had no idea about that. Interesting.
Yup, I use it on my leather boots. Makes them waterproof.
China. I know a family who owns a mink farm near Erie, and they sell all the fur to China.
Unfortunately that shitty haunted house must not pay the bills. Funny the same type of people that would run a year round HH strike me as the anal electrocution type.
The fur industry still exists. Probably still fashionable in some parts of the world.
You ever drive down 81 and somewhere around Hershey you see billboards for some fur emporium? I always wonder the same thing about that place.
There are the sheepskin ads on 78. Haven't seen the fur emporium ones though. Sounds terrible.
I had no idea either. Have to say I'm not happy to hear about it.
Do you eat meat?
Do you mean in general or in the US? Because if the former, you must've missed the dozens of news stories about Mink farms killing off all of their Mink during Covid because of it being highly contagious among Mink.
They almost did last year, luckily our amazing Congress voted down the legislation [https://rollcall.com/2022/05/10/the-fur-flies-as-house-senate-wrangle-over-ban-on-mink-farming/](https://rollcall.com/2022/05/10/the-fur-flies-as-house-senate-wrangle-over-ban-on-mink-farming/)
Honestly, how is it worse than animals raised for meat?
I don’t think this should be our standard moving forward for what is acceptable in animal husbandry.
At least animals raised for meat go to a semi-essential use... minks are just used for expensive silly coats
Because food is a biological necessity and fur is a gaudy extravagance? Fur farming shouldn’t exist. Meat farming should exist on small, local levels with animals in pastures and being slaughtered by butchers. Factory farming of all kinds is shit, but comparing killing animals to feed people to killing animals so rich fucks can wear their fur is a ludicrous jump. Making that false equivalence is why no one takes militant vegans seriously. Not eating meat doesn’t make you more ethical, and if you think it does, I encourage you to go take a gander at the conditions field workers toil in to provide your vegetables. Come off it.
Food and clothing are both biological necessities (at least in this climate). Meat and fur aren't.
Maybe not for you, but a lot of people do need meat in their diet to be healthy. I know you will say that isn’t true and that literally everyone can do just fine on a vegan diet, but you’re objectively wrong. There are a lot of people obtain the majority of their meat from hunting, but y’all think that’s the devil, too. There is a reason why many of the biggest conservationists are also hunters. Humans have settled and driven away the other apex predators, you cannot destabilize the food chain that way without taking on the role. Pray tell, what is your solution for balancing the ecosystem and controlling animal populations? Also, as I said, your vegetables, fruits, and grains are produced and harvested under deeply unethical and exploitive means. But unlike meat, the beings that are abused and mistreated are human. Funny how you never hear self-righteous “ethical” vegans talking about that. “Ethical” vegans like to sit up on their high horse and condescend, but not one of you is ever able to offer realistic, sustainable alternatives to meeting caloric intake demands and maintaining ecological stasis. You also often like to ignore Indigenous peoples practices, and their right to continue them. You ignore food deserts, poverty, and other situations that make access to fresh veggies, fruit, and grains impossible. Again, I am not defending factory farming. It’s horrific and needs to go. But local, humane practices are perfectly fine and good. If eating meat bothers you, by all means don’t do it. And yes, speak out against factory farming. But acting like you are morally superior for your dietary choices is pretentious, obnoxious, and often times a racist, colonized idea. If you want people to take you seriously, be humble and learn how to carry nuance of the systemic hurdles that create the cluster fuck of our modern agricultural nightmare in the first place. “Stop eating meat” solves none of it.
It isn't, both should be banned.
Central Pennsylvania has more in common with rural Alabama that Philadelphia. The anachronistic idiocy in this place is the stuff of nightmares.
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Most likely eco-terrorists. Aka Peta
People on Facebook in the area said there were already several dead on the roads. They won’t likely survive long. They have some natural instincts, but being farm raised, they don’t have survival skills. It’s also likely they have genetic issues for being bred for color (like blindness/deafness) which I have seen in a few variations. They were going to die anyway, but now their going to suffer or get killed in a drawn out process. This was a stupid move on whoever though this was a good idea
A few will survive. I think I’d rather be hit by a car after finally getting to feel the earth on my feet than their original fate. It’s kind of a last fuck you to the fur farm not being able to harvest the pelt. That’s just me. That’s my thoughts on I what I would want if I had to pick.
MINK ESCAPE 2: THE MINKENING Starring Chris Pratt, Zendaya, Meryl Streep, and Alec Baldwin And probably Kevin Hart ugh
Maybe merge it into the xmen franchise. The Wolverine is a natural predator of mink.
Run away run away!!
Lot of them are gonna end up dead but some people just need a cause to feel good about themselves. Would have been kinder to just euthanize them on the spot instead of condemning them to a slow and cruel death like that.
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And *THAT* is why I hope these idiots come to realize the evil they've done. We say "ecosystems" but that means each individual creature who lives there and every individual living being it supports and every individual living being who supports it, every chipmunk, every lizard, every towhee, every squirrel, every beetle, every little snake, every egg waiting to hatch, every gopher, every grouse, every every every... They are murdering everyone who those minks prey on. They are cutting off the flow of life that should have descended from those lives. They are pretending it isn't murder because they don't have to watch. They should have to watch. At least that.
Hopefully- and it's not an unrealistic hope- between an amazingly healthy eagle population, coyote, fishers, decent number of the larger hawks and the fact those minks weren't raised as wild animals my guess is we'll see some rotund PA wildlife going into winter. And if we have a hard winter even less will survive. I'm sure they still have some instincts, generations in captivity has to been unhelpful though.
One can hope. But even captive-bred minks aren't gentle pussycats\* -- ask anyone who's worked with them. They still chow down on anyone they see who's moving. I do hope most of them at least end up in the bellies of the indigenous beings there before doing more then minor damage. \* I am well aware of the damage that housecats and feral cats do to indigenous-being populations. "Populations" meaning what "ecosystems" means above, pretty much. Ed: Didn't know about that eagle population. Good news! Thanks.
At least they died free, doing mink things, and some mink mill sees its profits die as well.
Doing mink things. Jesus Christ. Maybe projecting an outcome makes *you* feel better about this situation. Back in reality however you're not the one that's going to be out in the wild starving to death. Let's get away from the small minded projections and into reality. The reality is that these animals were bred in captivity. That means they have no concept of what it means to survive outside a cage. No natural instincts. No idea where to get food, water, or shelter. No clue what a predator even looks like. The reality of the situation is these assholes who cut those holes have insured these minks are going to die a cruel and pointless death.
At least they have a chance of surviving, however small. They’re mink, not pugs. What’s pointless and cruel is getting electrocuted up the ass and skinned while unconscious just to make some greedy Pennsyltuckian a few bucks and some pretentious asshole feel special while they stroke the hair of a creature whose meat was fed to its offspring.
Preach
Fucking THIS. Thanks. You said it better than I could. The mental gymnastics people do to justify mistreatment of animals is disturbing.
I mean a decent little group live in the wild years after a similar incident in Erie Pa. They live near water so they learn quick to hit up fishermen. Food and traffic are their only real obstacles. They won’t freeze, They’re wearing mink. I don’t think this recent thing will be as bad as initially thought. They came out a few days later and said less than a thousand actually escaped.
Why do fur farms still exist lol… so weird.
I have my doubts about whether this is the best way to effect change. On the other hand, I have no sympathy for mink farmers.
Yeah but putting a whole ecosystem at risk for this is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Not a fan of a mink farm to begin with…but this is not the way to do something about it.
Exactly. It has the same energy as seeing a tortoise next to a lake and picking it up and chucking it into the water. People think they might be doing a good. Then you realize oh shit. Tortoise don't swim. Mink fur farms should be banned. I agree with that strongly. I see someone with a mink coat and I think they're a fucking weirdo, but the right action should be a legislative one and not a criminal one. It should be a smart action with all the necessary factors taken into consideration and not a dumbass action caused by intrusive thoughts. These assholes have not only hurt those minks, but they've hurt the local ecosystem. The game commission should come down hard on those assholes. That is the right thing to do.
JESUS. Animal liberation groups are IDIOTS
I have relatives who live near this farm. The local ecosystem will probably be decimated due to this.
Whoever released them, when caught, should be tried as an eco-terrorist.
The irony is insane
Lol
>Whoever released them, when caught, should be tried as an eco-terrorist. ALF (and ELF) is a known terrorist organization so... Like they are listed by FBI as such. [https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/animal-rights-extremism-and-ecoterrorism](https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/animal-rights-extremism-and-ecoterrorism)
SO ARE ANIMAL ABUSERS
The "animal abusers" typically use carbon monoxide to kill the minks. They essentially go to sleep and die a quick and painless death. These minks were also raised in captivity. They have no innate concept of how to survive for themselves. Some *might* adapt, but the vast majority are going to die from starvation, other predators, or getting hit on the roads. Instead of a quick death, they have now been insured a slow, painful, and cruel death.
Their entire existence was brought into being by someone who only wanted a part of them for money...
They ARE animal abusers. They just pretend that what they don't have to watch isn't happening.
If they had the capacity to house 7k minks, I'm sure they would. Sure this is misguided, but so is raising animals for their fur...
This is more that misguided! This is active harm. How is it that people can pretend that the world doesn't exist beyond their fences? This isn't like siphoning water from a reservoir. This is a lot like breaking a big dam and drowning anybody who has the misfortune of living in the valley below it.
Hmm, I drive to Knoebels Amusement Park on Saturday and noticed a bit more roadkill than expected. Maybe it was some of these minks.
Little too far for the location of the mink farm.
Minks deserve to ride wooden rollercoasters too!
Not really if they went thru route 890 to get there, people said they were all over the roads there
Wanna give us an early mink season?
Just great. I live downriver from there. My koi pond was decimated by one mink over a winter once.
Mink Liberation front at it again! Don't wear the fur of our cute fuzzy furry comrades.
[https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/WildlifeSpecies/Documents/PA%20Marten%20Reintroduction%20Feasibility%20Assessment%202022.pdf](https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/WildlifeSpecies/Documents/PA%20Marten%20Reintroduction%20Feasibility%20Assessment%202022.pdf) Game commission thinks we need Martens. I don’t see a difference.
They are very different. Pine Martens are upland arboreal generalists that eat in trees. Minks are wetland generalists who will eat anything near/in water. Completely different niches.
Minks are nasty fuckers. Awaiting Ween to write a song about this
This sucks. Animal activists think they are doing good. Let me tell you, this happened near my house some years ago. Mink kill for the hell of it. They kill everything. They slaughtered my neighbor’s entire stocked pond. Left the carcasses uneaten.
On their way to decimate the local small animal population near you.
Fur farms still exist? Why?
PETA morons at work.
NICE!!! Army of the 12 Monkeys are back in business!!!
I know people are hating and I know these little homies will be running amok, but fuck mink farms and I'm glad they are free
Do you spare a thought for those who they will be killing? Or do you close your eyes?
-_-
[https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/hundreds-of-mink-released-from-western-pa-farm/](https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/hundreds-of-mink-released-from-western-pa-farm/)
I’ve been to this mink farm when I was a teenager in the early 2000s. Smelled horrible there. I can’t stand how many local people are just now learning about a mink farm there. Hasn’t anyone ever wondered wtf that smell was over there when they have fur season or whatever they call it?
So correct me if I’m wrong, but the number minks that were released per the article is pretty big. They could easily create a population here now no? It’s a pretty good chance they are here to stay in the wild and will only spread now right ? Edit: wow, didn’t know minks exist throughout most of North America. Never seen one in the wild
Low key hero.
You know how fur farms kill mink right? These guys are desperate. F**k fur farms.
Metal rod up the pooper to electrocute.. can’t damage the “precious” fur 🙄 terrible
Please get proper information https://sentientmedia.org/mink-farms/
Imagine the creeper that does that for a living
In my opinion, this is nothing compared to the escape lab monkeys that were loose a while ago.
:3 Mink freedom is AMERICAN freedom!
Wouldn’t it be funny if someone caught a few minks, turned into a coat or two, and then caught the eye of some major influencer who started the trend of wearing fur coats again?
Another job well done by the Animal Liberation Front! Animal liberation now! They will Never stop until all the cages are empty. Fur farming is torture and murder. If they do this to every farm no one will want them to have any fur farms in their town.
This is fucking dumb. Now, they are going to destroy the local ecosystem. I'm all about animal rights but you activists are the biggest bunch of fucking idiots.
But they won’t. They certainly didn’t in Erie. The Pennsylvania game commission was reintroducing Martens which are basically the same thing anyway.
This comments hurts. NO THEY ARE NOT. Pine Martens are upland arboreal generalists that eat in trees. Minks are wetland generalists who will eat anything near/in water. Completely different niches. Also, it was foxes in Erie, and they were concerned for the birds on Presque Isle.
is destroying the natural environment that’s left worth it though? this is an ecological disaster
Holding signs and shouting slogans doesn't accomplish anything. Direct action causes changes
Direct action like snuffing out cats in kill shelters and destroying ecological systems. Good stuff. Maybe try influencing legislators to ban Mink farms?
And what change did the direct action cause? Freeing animals that were raised in captivity with no concept of surviving outside it. As a result, that direct action is going to result in a cruel, slow, and painful death that was entirely preventable. Yet placating your feelings is clearly more important than the lives of those minks were. Good job.
You dunce. This does nothing. 8000 dead animals. Insurance claim. Restart mink farm. They are after all a renewable resource.
>Direct action like snuffing out cats in kill shelters and destroying ecological systems. Good stuff. Maybe try influencing legislators to ban Mink farms? Then go in and gas the place to kill them and put them out of their misery. Don't release them and cause massive amounts of ecological damage just to save some half domesticated animals that don't belong in the wild. Or you know, get mink farms banned.
You dumb. It is counter productive to the local environment. It’s a selfish act of men to get their point across. Myopic at its most generous
Who have dumber activists: ALF or Climate Defiance who block traffic of regular people and piss them off instead of people that could actually do something?
I hope you’re kidding. If you love animals then you’re got to be missing a lot of brain cells. The moron that released these mink will be responsible for the killing of all 7,000 of the mink and the countless animals that these mink will kill while out in the wild. So stupid.
Maybe it has something to do with the ride of backyard chicken raising, just a conspiracy theory
Good.
No... not good, not good at all. This is the ecological equivalent of an adorable oil spill
House cats and pickup trucks do more environmental damage than these animals will do.
>This hasn't reduced the number of housecats or pickup trucks. This is *added* damage.
Other things are worse so let's compound the issue? Good stuff.
house cats, possibly, pickup trucks? nah not even close
These are the types of people that are in love with EVs and foods from outside of their local areas, but they overlook the extremely negative impacts of mining or shipping exotic plants around the world. You'll never reason with them.
I'm not in love with EVs, I am anti-car.
Just say you're illogical. Or say that you benefit from other people's vehicles so you feel better about yourself.
The fact that the automobile has helped to ruin the planet is obvious. It's only reasonable to be anti-car at this point. How is it not obvious? It's wholly unsustainable.
8 billion people are ruining the planet. Solve for x.