Denmark will dig up minks that are ‘rising from the grave’
Government officials in Denmark plan to dig up minks that appeared to have “risen from the dead.”
Last month, Denmark, which produces 40% of the world’s mink fur, planned to cull the entirety of the country’s mink population after human cases were tied to minks infected with a mutated strain of the novel coronavirus.
The hurried nature of the burials, however, meant that the creatures were buried only in shallow graves – and later appeared to emerge from the dead, causing a national panic.
“The gases cause the animals to expand and in the worst cases, the mink get pushed out of the ground,” Jannike Elmegaard, a Danish Veterinary and Food Administration spokesman, told The Associated Press.
Elmegaard explained that the minks were buried in trenches around 8 feet deep, but in multiple layers separated by chalk and dirt. The highest layer of minks were likely the “zombie” culprit.
It seems likely that the carcasses will be exhumed and reburied in deeper graves, per CNN. But in the meantime, the area continues to be monitored 24 hours a day.
Though no exact number is available for how many minks have been culled, around 2 million were culled by mid-November, the BBC reported. The total number of minks in the country is estimated at 15 million.
Both local and state officials, including newly appointed Food and Agriculture Minister Rasmus Prehn, have also given credence to the idea of incinerating the bodies. Reuters reported that Prehn has since consulted with the nation’s environmental agency for next steps.
Prehn’s predecessor, Mogens Jensen, resigned after approving the controversial cullings, which were deemed illegal a week after approval but show no signs of stopping.