Denmark abandons plan for mass mink cull
Denmark's government will not move ahead with its plan to immediately slaughter all 17 million mink in the country, due to legal obstacles and a lack of political backing.
Last week, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced the mass cull of the country's entire mink population -- including those that are healthy -- amid concerns that a COVID-19 mutation moving from farmed mink to humans could evade future vaccines. But on Monday, Danish Environment and Food Minister Mogens Jensen admitted that the government did not have the legal basis for the order.

Frederiksen's minority Social Democratic government still plans to put forward emergency legislation to back the cull on Tuesday, but the draft needs a three-quarters majority in parliament and opposition parties have already suggested they won't support it.
There are doubts over whether the mass cull is actually scientifically based as well as concerns that it would threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of mink breeders. Denmark is the largest exporter of mink fur in the world.
Meanwhile, mink breeders will continue to cull any infected animals on farms. As of Tuesday morning, around 2.5 million mink -- both infected and healthy -- have been culled so far, a spokesman for Denmark's Ministry of Environment and Food told ABC News. The animals are gassed and then either incinerated or buried in mass graves on military-owned land.
ABC News' Dragon Jovanovic contributed to this report.






