Almost 100,000 mink are to be culled at a farm in Spain after an outbreak of COVID-19 among the animals, according to reports.
Spanish news organization ABC reports that authorities in Spain have ordered the destruction of 92,700 mink at a farm in northeastern Spain. Joaquin Olona, agriculture minister for the Spanish region of Aragon, said Thursday that the cull is “to avoid the risk of human transmission,” the BBC reports.
Minks peer out of their cages at a pelt farm near the village of Lesino some 115 miles south-west of Minsk on November 26, 2010 -file photo. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP via Getty Images)
The move follows similar coronavirus-related culls at mink farms in Holland and Denmark and has sparked outrage from animal rights activists, longtime opponents of the mink farming industry.
“Spanish health min. ordered the culling of 92,700 #mink after a #covid19 outbreak on a #fur farm,” tweeted the Fur Free Alliance. “Spain is the 3rd country, after Holland and Denmark, where mink are found infected. Immediate ACTION is needed to put an end to this needless suffering.”
Spain is one of the worst affected countries in the coronavirus pandemic. At least 258,855 people have been diagnosed with the virus in Spain, resulting in at least 28,416 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
As of Friday morning, more than 13.8 million coronavirus cases have been diagnosed around the world, and the virus has been responsible for more than 590,000 deaths.
No comments:
Post a Comment