Vandals kill 400 minks, two dogs at farm

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Vandals kill 400 minks, two dogs at farm

Friday, June 08, 2007
By Cindi Lash, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As he's done nearly every morning for decades, mink farmer Robert DeMatteis headed to his pens early Wednesday to feed thousands of the sleek animals his family has raised since the 1930s in Butler County.

Moments later, Mr. DeMatteis, 48, was staring in horror at the aftermath of an overnight rampage: smashed and toppled cages, carcasses of trampled minks and the bloody bodies of his children's two pet dogs.

"It was just total death everywhere, with minks loose or stomped and both dogs dead," said his wife, Kim DeMatteis, 43, as she wept yesterday at the family's Oakwood Mink Farm in Marion. The farm is one of nine where minks are raised for sale in Pennsylvania.

"Whoever broke in brutally injured or killed baby minks, nursing mothers, and totally tore the whole ranch apart. Whoever could do something this cruel and vicious to animals [is dangerous]."

Intruders set loose nearly 2,800 minks, resulting in the deaths of at least 443 animals, after slipping in and opening the farm's pens late Tuesday or early Wednesday. They also nearly severed the heads of the family's 19-year-old sheepdog, named Sy, and 2-year-old sheepdog-beagle mix, named Sandy, by shooting or bludgeoning them with something sharp. Mrs. DeMatteis said.

Many minks were run over after slipping under a fence and scampering to a nearby road. Others appeared to have been stomped to death near their pens, she said. The dead animals included 340 kits, or baby minks, that weighed less than a pound and were still nursing and helpless, she said.

The attack is being investigated by state police and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers who probe potential acts of domestic or international terrorism. A reward of up to $100,000 has been offered by the Fur Commission USA, a Coronado, Calif.-based association that represents fur farmers, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

FBI spokesman William Crowley declined comment on the investigation.

Fur Commission USA Executive Director Teresa Platt said the task force joined the case because of the possibility that animal rights extremists carried out the incident.

No group has claimed responsibility for freeing and harming the animals at the DeMatteis farm in the village of Boyers, Ms. Platt said. Commission officials know of no other attacks on fur farms for at least two years, and they aren't sure that animal rights activists were involved because so many animals ended up dead or hurt, she said.

"Dogs being killed is unusual. Animals being trampled is [unusual]," she said. "Until I see a press release or statement, I don't know. But whoever did this is pretty sick."

Mrs. DeMatteis said the intruders wiped out the business started in 1936 by her husband's father and uncle and operated for the past 32 years by her husband. With help from relatives and neighbors, they managed to round up many surviving animals.

But they can no longer breed those minks for sale because they cannot match the animals with pedigree-history information that was posted on pens, Mrs. DeMatteis said. A good-quality adult mink pelt sells for $60 or more.

"Our life is done. Our business is done. Our lives are ruined," she said. "Every mink that didn't get killed, we lost its bloodlines. And if mothers don't accept [surviving] babies, they'll starve to death."

The family has had neither the time nor the inclination to consider the extent of its losses, Mrs. DeMatteis said. Her two daughters and her son, ages 8, 7 and 4, are inconsolable over losing beloved dogs, she said, and the minks were not insured because "nobody would give us insurance with these animal rights groups."

"We can't imagine who would do this to us," she said, breaking down again. "We had our priest come out and say prayers and bless [the farm] with us. This was my husband's livelihood. This was our life. But I don't know if I can do it anymore."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07159/792510-338.stm

Jesus..... I bet A.L.F. won't be taking credit for this "mink freeing" (to a slow death by starvation) anytime soon.

[needtawrite]

Who would do something like this? How can you be an animal rights "activist" and kill animals? It doesn't make sense.