Animal rights activists have launched an email campaign and are planning a live demonstration against the use of bear cubs at this yearâs Baby Animal Days event put on by the American West Heritage Center.
The cubs, raised and handled by workers at Yellowstone Bear World in Rexburg, Idaho, have been featured at Baby Animal Days in the past, but this year the exhibit drew the attention of the international animal-rights organization PETA, which posted an âaction alertâ on its website inviting members and visitors to send objection letters to the Heritage Center and the event sponsor, Young Automotive Group.
What the mink COVID-19 outbreaks taught us about pandemics
Spread of the coronavirus has exposed troubling problems at fur farms and how we respond to outbreaks there.
Denmark killed all its farmed mink last year, millions of animals, after a variant form of the novel coronavirus was detected circulating between mink and humans. New research has shown that many mink may be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2.Photograph by Mads Claus Rasmusse, Ritzau Scanpix, AFP, Getty Images
ByDina Fine Maron
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Anne Sofie Hammer was searching for sick mink. The Danish government had hired the University of Copenhagen veterinary pathologist in June 2020 to investigate if farmers were infecting mink with the novel coronavirus. This meant going from farm to farm, looking for animals that weren’t eating or had a cough and taking blood samples and mouth swabs.
A wild mink in Utah is the first wild animal anywhere to test positive for COVID-19, researchers say
The animal was found and tested near an infected fur farm.
(Sergei Grits | AP file photo)FILE - In this Sept. 4, 2015, file photo, a mink sniffs the air near a the village of Khatenchitsy, Belarus on Sept. 4, 2015. A wild mink in Utah has become the first wild animal to test positive for COVID-19. It was found near an infected fur farm. | Updated: 12:46 a.m.
A wild mink in Utah is the first free-ranging native animal anywhere to test positive for COVID-19.
It was found and tested near an infected fur farm, and that has some national groups raising alarms.