Another example of "Our goal is so noble, we can ruin people". Notice how you can climb the high-horse of nobility when your own money is not at stake.
Vandals release 14,000 Iowa mink
By STACI HUPP
Register Staff Writer
A New Hampton man says vandals wiped out his family business Thursday when they released 14,000 mink from a Chickasaw County fur farm.
A Canadian animal-rights group claimed responsibility, calling the release the "largest of its kind."
"The war against the fur industry is far from over, as long as animals are kept in cages and killed for vanity luxury items," said David Barbarash of the North American Animal Liberation Front.
Lenny Drewelow said he found every pen empty when he arrived early Thursday at the 60-year-old farm outside town. After an all-day search, he said, about half the animals had been found. Many had been run over by motorists.
Drewelow, 36, sells the mink fur and oil to clothing and perfume makers. The farm has kept food on the table for three generations, he said.
"It's devastating. It's your worst nightmare, from a business standpoint, to wake up and find this," he said.
Drewelow declined to say how much his family reaps from the New Hampton farm, but experts estimated a similar farm would net $30,000 to $40,000 a year.
"There will be several hundred thousand dollars' worth of damage," predicted Teresa Platt, director of Fur Commission USA, which represents 400 mink and fox farms nationwide.
Platt's group and several other conservation groups have raised $100,000 for farms that have been targeted by animal-rights activists.
"This crime seems to be part of the philosophy that man is not supposed to benefit from the earth," Platt said.
Activists have been criticized for advocating nonviolence while many freed animals starve to death, are struck by cars or die of dehydration. Barbarash defended his group.
"Had they not been released, they would have been killed anyway," Barbarash said. "At least this way, they have a fighting chance."
Copyright © 2000, The Des Moines Register.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited September 09, 2000).]
Vandals release 14,000 Iowa mink
By STACI HUPP
Register Staff Writer
A New Hampton man says vandals wiped out his family business Thursday when they released 14,000 mink from a Chickasaw County fur farm.
A Canadian animal-rights group claimed responsibility, calling the release the "largest of its kind."
"The war against the fur industry is far from over, as long as animals are kept in cages and killed for vanity luxury items," said David Barbarash of the North American Animal Liberation Front.
Lenny Drewelow said he found every pen empty when he arrived early Thursday at the 60-year-old farm outside town. After an all-day search, he said, about half the animals had been found. Many had been run over by motorists.
Drewelow, 36, sells the mink fur and oil to clothing and perfume makers. The farm has kept food on the table for three generations, he said.
"It's devastating. It's your worst nightmare, from a business standpoint, to wake up and find this," he said.
Drewelow declined to say how much his family reaps from the New Hampton farm, but experts estimated a similar farm would net $30,000 to $40,000 a year.
"There will be several hundred thousand dollars' worth of damage," predicted Teresa Platt, director of Fur Commission USA, which represents 400 mink and fox farms nationwide.
Platt's group and several other conservation groups have raised $100,000 for farms that have been targeted by animal-rights activists.
"This crime seems to be part of the philosophy that man is not supposed to benefit from the earth," Platt said.
Activists have been criticized for advocating nonviolence while many freed animals starve to death, are struck by cars or die of dehydration. Barbarash defended his group.
"Had they not been released, they would have been killed anyway," Barbarash said. "At least this way, they have a fighting chance."
Copyright © 2000, The Des Moines Register.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited September 09, 2000).]
. Morons.