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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Sophie Kevany, Tom Levitt and Tom Carstensen

Denmark’s COVID mass mink cull had no legal justification, says report

A truck unloads dead mink into a ditch
Dead animals are dumped in a ditch after the authorities ordered Denmark’s entire mink population to be killed. Photograph: Morten Stricker/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP/Getty Images

The Danish government lacked legal justification and made “grossly misleading” statements when it ordered a mass mink extermination two years ago, according to an official inquiry into Europe’s first compulsory farm sector shutdown, which has cost taxpayers billions in compensation to farmers.

In November 2020, Denmark, the world’s largest mink producer, announced it would kill its entire farmed mink population of 15 million animals, because of fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines.

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