{"id":1937,"date":"2020-11-30T23:46:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T23:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1937"},"modified":"2020-11-30T23:46:24","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T23:46:24","slug":"the-mink-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2020\/11\/30\/the-mink-saga\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mink Saga"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Free image from Pixabay; no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201dI\u2019m a mink farmer from Hj\u00f8rring [town in Northern Jutland]!\u201d A man tries to impress a woman with a witty line in a pedestrian city street at night, just before the bars close at 10 PM due to COVID-19. She smiles \u2013 it\u2019s early November, and Danish minks are suddenly the talk of the global town.<\/p>\n

Mink<\/strong> (minks) have been kept for their pels<\/strong> (fur) for generationer<\/strong> [gheneraSHOWnor] in Nordjylland<\/strong> (Northern Jutland) \u2013 men ikke l\u00e6ngere<\/strong> (but not any longer). This efter\u00e5r<\/strong> (autumn), the Danish regering<\/strong> (government) warned that several minks were infected with corona<\/strong>. What\u2019s worse, the virus started mutating inside the bodies of the furry animals, spreading back to mennesker <\/strong>(humans). All of a sudden, everybody was bange<\/strong> (afraid) of a possible COVID-20, unstoppable by any vaccine <\/strong>[vaxeeneh].<\/p>\n

What would you do if you had infected dyr <\/strong>(animals) in your home? Danish statsminister<\/strong> (Prime Minister) Mette Frederiksen took no chances, telling at a November 4th<\/span> pressem\u00f8de <\/strong>(press conference) that alle mink<\/strong> were going to be aflivet<\/strong> (killed, literally \u201doff-lifed\u201d). On November 6th, the northernmost kommuner<\/strong> (municipalities) of Jylland<\/strong> (Jutland) as well as the island of L\u00e6s\u00f8<\/strong> went into a strict lockdown (that locals had to endure for two weeks). Foreign countries were also reacting swiftly, with the UK temporarily banning Danes from entering Britain.<\/p>\n

For almindelige mennesker<\/strong> (ordinary people), it all seemed a bit unbelievable. Minkavlerne<\/strong> (the mink farmers) were furious at the government, as they had to kill and destroy not only the infected animals, but absolutely alle mink<\/strong>, literally hundreds of thousands of them. (Remember the reactions<\/a> a Danish zoo got when they killed a giraffe? Yes, I know it\u2019s not quite fair to compare the two situations; I only mention it to highlight just how massive the mink killing has been.) Although the mink farmers did get a fair share of money for each lost mink, many told the media that they had absolutely no idea what to do in the future.<\/p>\n

It later turned out that some of the politicians had broken Danish laws by ordering all<\/em> minks to be killed. There was a lot of angry discussions at Folketinget<\/strong> (the Danish parliament), which cost one minister (food minister Mogens Jensen) his job. There were also worries that some of the minks had been buried too close to people\u2019s drikkevand<\/strong> (drinking water).<\/p>\n

In the end, only experts will know if it was a good idea to destroy all the Danish minks. Some Danes certainly feel safer, while others may see the happening as a typical Danish molbohistorie<\/strong> (traditional story about foolish people from the Mols area): The best of intentions turn into a mess. In a weird corona situation, Denmark got the world\u2019s attention in a totally unexpected way. For Danes in streets and homes, November 2020 was the month of the mink. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

\u201dI\u2019m a mink farmer from Hj\u00f8rring [town in Northern Jutland]!\u201d A man tries to impress a woman with a witty line in a pedestrian city street at night, just before the bars close at 10 PM due to COVID-19. She smiles \u2013 it\u2019s early November, and Danish minks are suddenly the talk of the global…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[529640,542464,529642,510728,542461,542462,542465,542463,510657],"class_list":["post-1937","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-corona","tag-laeso","tag-lockdown","tag-mette-frederiksen","tag-mink","tag-mogens-jensen","tag-molbohistorie","tag-nordjylland","tag-northern-jutland"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t