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Denmark is to offer more than $ 3 billion in compensation to mink breeders following a controversial decision last year to eradicate the country’s stock of creatures in a bid to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.
Danish deputies Okay Monday night to give mink farmers up to DKr 19 billion ($ 3.1 billion) to recoup losses of up to 17 million slaughtered animals and future loss of income in a deal seen by many as generous for an industry already in decline.
Denmark was the world’s largest producer of mink skins, but the center-left government abruptly shut down the industry in November over fears that a mutant strain of coronavirus that had passed from mink to humans could do so. . threaten efficiency certain vaccines.
But the slaughter came down in a political, logistical and scientific context prank call as it turned out that the government had no legal basis to order the killing, and authorities were forced to exhume mass graves after swollen mink corpses surfaced and threatened to provide relief. ‘potable water.
Scientists also questioned whether the mutated version of the coronavirus was as dangerous as Danish officials initially claimed and the threat it posed to vaccines. The Danish Minister of Agriculture was forced to resign about the scandal.
The Danish mink industry had previously been face difficult times before the pandemic, many western consumers were reluctant to wear animal furs. Several European countries have banned mink farming, leaving China and Russia as popular destinations for pelts.
Denmark has banned mink farming this year amid fears that the creatures could serve as reservoirs for the virus to pass between them and humans, but the government is set to restore the industry in 2022.
Breeders should receive compensation at the current market rate of 160-250 Danish krone for animals killed during slaughter, but 333 kroner per animal to calculate the theoretical loss of future income.
An average Danish mink farmer with 2,670 creatures would receive around 2.7 million Danish crowns to 4.1 million crowns for dead animals and around 7.6 million crowns for lost future income, as well as 1.3 million crowns for capital costs such as government buildings and equipment.
“We have sold a world-class business, so of course we have to have appropriate compensation,” Tage Pedersen, head of the Danish Mink Breeders Association, told TV2. He added that the industry “would never come back” because competition from countries like China and Poland was too fierce to restart production.
The deal was backed by the ruling Social Democrats and four other parties, but two left-wing parties refused to back it, arguing the payments were too generous.
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