Idiocy.

Now, I’m opposed to fur-farming as much as the next person. I don’t approve of raising a non-domestic species in a small cage, then electrocuting it through the genitals to make one one-hundredth of a coat. (You want to do this to a chicken, I don’t care nearly so much–I don’t wish the chicken any harm, but the modern chicken is more like fruit with legs. I have stared deep into the eyes of the chicken, and all I saw was the back of the chicken’s eyeball.) Mink, however, are fellow mammals, and not mammals that we’ve bred for intense stupidity, and I would just as soon the mink spent their days minking it up in the woods like the gods of minkdom intended.

But going through and setting farm-raised mink loose does not help mink. These are not wild mink, cruelly torn from high forest country, these are a bunch of mink who think that food gets delivered twice a day in kibble form. If the hills were alive with the sounds of kibble, these mink might do just fine, but it isn’t, so these poor weasels are doomed to either a life of slow starvation, or a fast and splattery appointment with a tire. This does not give the mink a better life.

The other thing that pisses me off is that groups like this who conduct these dreadfully ill-considered acts of animal liberation, (like releasing lab rats, which I still foam about) are not only NOT helping the animals, they make those of us who like animals and would prefer that they aren’t treated badly look like idiots. Say that you’re for the ethical treatment of animals, and people automatically assume you’re either a starry-eyed nincompoop, or a domestic terrorist.

The way to get fur sales to drop is to make it socially unacceptable, and bloody inconvenient. Regulate fur farming so that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. If people don’t buy fur, fur farmers don’t make money raising farm mink, and there are fewer unhappy mink in the world. Buy cow leather or something. Or kill your own fur, if you must have it, which is has a lot of advantages, provided you’re responsible and humane about it, stick to nice, non-endangered species, and it doesn’t put any money in fur-farm pockets, either.

So, to recap–what did these mink liberators achieve? A lot of dead, starving mink and they struck another blow for making those of us who want animals to be treated well look like the lunatic fringe. Thanks, guys.

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