Animal Liberation Press: Minnesota Fur Farm Burns to the Ground

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Massive Fire Destroys Main Building at Detroit Lakes Fur Farm, Fire Called Accidental

AnimalLiberationFrontline October 12, 2013

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Main building at Sonnenberg Mink Farm goes up in flames.

Days after activists released 450 mink from a fur farm across the state, the main building at a large Minnesota fur farm has gone up in flames. The daytime fire is being called “accidental,” and early speculation is that it may have been caused by a spark from an incinerator.

With 50,000 mink, the Sonnenberg Mink Farm is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, mink farms in the state. Detroit Lakes is home to at least five mink farms, with the empty remains of several closed farms also scattered across town. The building destroyed was said to house all mink feed and equipment used on the farm.

Three fur industry targets suffer recent accidental fires



The fur industry has seen a suspicious number of accidental fires in the past two years. In December 2011, what may be the largest fur farm feed supplier in the country went up in flames. The Utah Fur Breeder’s Agricultural Cooperative’s main plant caught fire from a welder’s torch, and was a total loss.

And in May 2012, an empty mink shed at Lion Farms in Nottingham, Indiana was destroyed by a fire that was called accidental.

What remains of the main building at the Sonnenberg Mink Farm will have to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch.

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View news coverage of the fire here: http://www.valleynewslive.com/story/23673294/mink-farm



[Press Office note: Imprisoned in cages for life, or mercilessly trapped with painful leghold traps in the wild, fur-bearing animals killed to make unnecessary fashion statements are forced to endure intensive confinement, compared to the miles of territory these still-wild animals would enjoy in their natural state. The natural instincts of these captive animals are completely frustrated; self-mutilation, sickness, infection, poor sanitation and the sheer stress of confinement lead animals in captivity to premature death. When they survive, animals of sufficient size are killed by anal electrocution or gassing, then skinned. In addition to liberating the wild animals destined for a certain, painful and agonizing death, another goal of liberationists is to cause economic damage to fur retailers and farms; dozens of stores and fur farming operations have seen economic ruin since "Operation Bite Back" began by the Animal Liberation Front in the 1990s.

The Animal Liberation Front utilizes economic sabotage in addition to the direct liberation of animals from conditions of abuse and imprisonment to halt needless animal suffering. By making it more expensive to trade in the lives of innocent, sentient beings, the ALF maintain the atrocities against our brothers and sisters are likely to occur in smaller numbers; their goal is to abolish the exploitation, imprisonment, torture and killing of innocent, non-human animals. A copy of the Final Nail, a listing of known fur farms in North America, is available on the Press Office website at www.animalliberationpressoffice.org]

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