After this weekend’s news that hundreds of mink were released from cages at a fur farm in Pennsylvania, it’s a good time for a reminder that mink are native to North America and fur farm escapees can and do survive outside the farm.
Mink are adaptable animals who thrive in diverse habitats, and who eat just about anything they can catch. For many years, scientists in the U.S., Canada and Europe have studied escaped farmed mink. Even without help from animal rights activists, it is common for mink to escape confinement on farms. Wherever there are mink farms around the globe there are feral populations. And despite the fearmongering from the fur industry, scientists have found little ecological impact from escaped mink in the U.S.
The fact is that fur farm escapees have a chance at life, but on a fur farm most mink will be killed before their first birthday.