Pity the American mink. The otter-like creatures are preyed on by coyotes, wolves and, above all, humans, who progressed from trapping the animals to farming them for their fur. Now 17m of the semiaquatic mammals face a nationwide cull in Denmark over fears of a coronavirus mutation — assuming, that is, Danish legislators work out how they can do so legally.
The Scandinavian country accounts for roughly half the 35m mink farmed in Europe in 2018, according to latest available data collated by animal activist group Humane Society International. That still ranks it behind China, which leads the pack worldwide with 20m.
Even before the Danes’ botched cull, the allure of mink was waning. The fur was a staple of bygone glamour days — it adorned 200 pairs of earmuffs ordered by actress Elizabeth Taylor as Christmas gifts. Mink has fallen out of fashion. Animal rights activists have ensured fur wearers are now more often the object of scorn than envy. Luxury designers from Gucci to Prada, sensing that fur had shifted from social cachet to social gaffe, stripped their rails of the real stuff. Faux fur became cool.