Intruders release 6,800 mink from St. Marys farm

Ontario Provincial Police are investigating a break-in at a fur farm north of St. Marys, which led to the release of 6,800 mink from their cages Tuesday night.

Kirk Rankin, presidentof RBR Fur Farms, said he went to work this morning and discoveredmink running around "all over the place."

"I'm fed up," said Rankin. "Braindead people who apparently don't like what I do for a living. My grandfather started this farm in 1937. Maybe I don't like what some people, what they do either, but it doesn't give me the right to go and try to put them out of business and do something stupid."

Rankin said he's been rounding up the mink by hand, using fishnets and gloves. He has not been able to count how many have been returned to their cages and how many are still missing.

"They let out all the young ones. Right now it doesn't look too bad, but we haven't got it all lined up to know how many been caught yet," said Rankin.

Police said several wide openings were cut in the fence that surrounds the farm on Road 125. Four sheds werebroken into sometime between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 1 a.m. Wednesday.

This is a second break-in of a commercial mink farm near St.Marysin recent months. The first was atGlenwoodFur Farms on Perth Line 9 at the end of May, when 1,600 mink were released. Most werecaptured and returned, but roughly 100 died from exposure to the cold, injuries from fighting or being squashed on the road.

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