Third fur farm raid in one month: 2,000 mink released in Illinois
In yet another large action this summer, 2,000 mink are released from a small farm in Illinois.
Local media is reporting 2,000 mink were released on August 14th from a fur farm in Morris, Illinois. Police state they received a call at 5am on August 14th from the farm owned by Bob Dodeghero. 2,000 mink had been released, two trucks had been doused with paint stripper, and a barn had been spray painted with “Liberation is love.”
The farm is one of the smallest mink farms in the country. A farm of its size (as shown in the photo below) is typical of a farm that can hold somewhere in the range of 2,000 animals, making it likely that every animal was freed.
Aerial view of the Morris, IL fur farm where 2,000 mink were released.
The ALF’s “freedom summer” continues
This is the 6th major US action of the summer, which has seen a horse slaughterhouse arson, two releases of birds from game farms, and three releases of animals from fur farms.
All three fur farm raids have taken place in less than one month. In late-July, as many as 4,800 mink were released from a fur farm in Burley, Idaho. And earlier in August, the last bobcat imprisoned at a Montana fur farm was released from its cage.
This small wave of ALF fur farm activity comes after the slowest period since the Animal Liberation Front began its fur farm campaign in the mid-1990s. Last year, there was only a single release of animals from a fur farm: The release of 13 foxes from a farm in Elkton, Virginia.
No claim of responsibility – yet
News of this action comes almost two weeks late, and it was not known of publicly until a Morris, IL newspaper ran the story today. No communique has (yet) been received, and there are no known details beyond what is reported in the article. The fur industry has (so far) remained quiet about the incident.
I’m never tired of news like this !!! Thnak you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sorry, I meant thank you 🙂
For those of you who have destroyed the environment:
Thank you for making our jobs of protecting animals and the environment that much harder! You are so blind to what you are doing. You are destroying ecosystems and the animals in them to accomplish your own ends. Releasing animals on such a large scale into an area they are not native to only causes devastation to the surrounding wildlife. Do Not claim to be an animal ot environmental rights group! We DON’T want you! Go back to your Starbucks, destruction of land for malls, helping plastic plants kill the environment, and destruction of farms/forestry for residential homes. You are Not protecting the animals as you claim, or you would know that many animals in the surrounding areas are trying to be protected from endangerment! Thank you for helping those who work against preserving the wildlife! Yes, that was sarcasm!
I agree with you Jessica. Letting so many into one area will dessimate a lot of the bird population. Also many of them will die because they are used to being fed and watered, not having to get along on there own.
More to come lets hope
Ughhh… I apologize for my rant. But, you need to understand what you have done. A particular species of bird, that hadn’t been spotted in this area in over 3 years, made a migratory path through this town this year. The numbers on this species are declining. The number of coyotes and other predatory animals, and resdiential sprawl, have caused it to change it’s breeding and flight patterns. I had finally been able to convince 3 farms to preserve areas on their land for safe passage. Giving the species a better opportunity to thrive and return to it’s original patterns. The release from this particular farm was devastating to those of us who have worked so diligently. They have now introduced a New predatory species to the area. Also, 2 of thr farmers will now no longer speak to me. They are in fear that, perhaps, I am aware of the individuals involved given my work. I do Not know of them and would have some choice words if I did! Now knowing this information can you understand what this group has done? Without a protected path I fear some of the birds will only find their way to the endangered list. So, please, stop releasing predatory animals into these environments.
As an advocate of wildlife here in the NW I applaud this action. I think Jessica is overstating the actual impact that this act will have on the ecosystem. There have been dozens of mink releases over the last decade and there is no evidence that they cause the sort of “ecological devistation” that Jessica is asserting. A strike against factory farming is something that advocates of wildlife should be appluading, not condemning.
Farm raised mink will not survive in the wild! So for whoever let them out, smart thinking dummy
exactly ! I agree with you !!! Jessica, please calm down. I love ALF !!!!
why would Jessica care if the fur farmers talk to her or not ,, but sense she is a wildlife rescuer now she can help protect the Minks that are also WILDLIFE just like the Birds …thank you sooo much ALF
I share Jessica Pattel’s concerns and this was my first thought on reading the article as well as my concern for the minks’ survival in such large numbers. I wonder though, since there has been “No claim of responsibility – yet”, if perhaps the farmers have not released the minks to claim insurance. This has been shown to happen in the past.
You apologise for your “rant” and then you “rant” again! Why don’t you just ShutUp!!
On the surface, I support this, but it sounds like they were just released into the wild. Was any type of study done on the impact to the local environment before 2000 animals were released into the ecosystem. You now have 2000 animals in the wild that will have to eat something. A spike of that many predators likely can’t be sustained by the local wildlife. What is the health of the captive raised mink population? If they are raised just for fur, I wonder if they are vaccinated. If they are imported, I wonder if they are going to introduce non-native diseases into the wild population in Illinois. Was any consideration to these issue given before they were released? I’m not scolding, I legitimately want to know.
why would Jessica care if the fur farmers talk to her or not ,, but sense she is a wildlife rescuer now she help protect the Minks that are also WILDLIFE just like the Birds …thank you sooo much ALF
Chances are, that many of the mink you’ve already released are either dead from fighting each other for territory or in the process of starving since they were farm raised animals that only ate pelted food and probably have never hunted before.
That makes them not only easy prey for coyotes, bobcats and owls, but also for hunters. Every county in Illinois allows for the hunting or trapping of furbearing creatures. You just upped the amount that can be taken by hunters by releasing those animals. Good going!!!
Not to nit pick, but were it you.. Would you prefer to sit in a tiny prison cell awaiting execution for the crime of having pretty fur our would given the chance you run free in a field and take your chances?
Way to go, ALF!
Jessica, you are not talking to idiots. Don’t hide behind that old worn out excuse to protect your barbaric business.
I Absolutely Love A L F .MY HEROES .Wish it was something you could sign up for, I’d be there
This is absolutely wonderful. These people/this organization are angels and heroes. I love them and their work. Keep it up Heroes. I never tire of wonderful news like this either. Love these people!
Jessica…plz stop with ur ignorance. And to ALF. I wanna be apart of this liberation. Plz plz show me the way to be more involved. Love and respect always.
Correct. Email
So easy to criticize both sides. Maybe a different viewpoint is what will the over-all long term impact be for all sentient beings on this earth.
No doubt that raising animals for fur is a barbaric practice in my book and if people can’t make a living other than kill something they need a lot of help.
The earth will take care of the environment sooner or later.
if animals dont have alow to live freedom we will do it by force , wish i was there to work and support them for liberty
The people who raided the farm are obviously animal lovers so most likely they didn’t let the minks out in the wild. They likely loaded them into cages and took them to a safe place where they will be fed, taken care of and never used for fur. They probably learned the schedule of the workers/owners of the farm and waited for them to leave and took all the minks. They know caged animals can’t survive on their own. Those people probably have sanctuaries somewhere.
GodBless them. Jessica Pattel if you have a better way to stop this we would love to hear it. They are risking their freedom to liberate these animals. So stop talking trash.
I do hope you’re right Carrie but I fear that you aren’t and that these mink are doomed. The last lot released into the wild were all either run over or starved, there were bodies were all over the surrounding roads 🙁
AY yi YI YI YIIIIIII!!! I live in Morris, IL where this raid occurred. To those of you that think this is cruel for these animals to be set free, I see your point of their demise being imminent… but it was imminent in Rodeghero’s farm as well. They’re NOT loved, cared for as a living breathing species, rather packed into wire cages for their tortuous lives then ‘relieved’ of this by gassing, barbituate injections (IF the farmer cares to spend that kind of money which is RARE) or neck dislocation / electrocution. They never had the opportunity to experience sunlight, grasses under their feet, fishing for crawfish, frogs by a creek or romping along a mossy log. Deprevation is all they’ve known. Eco-terrorism? Nah… no different than the thousands of raccoons surviving in Grundy County. Same lifestyles… You want to discuss Eco-Terrorism? Can you say Fracking? Monsanto? Landfills? Plastic Bags? (NONE of which were championed by animals but they too suffer from it.) To reach far beyond reality on the Eco-Terrorism path here, to HAVE that many mink that you are certain you have complete control over then discover you don’t… well then, your greed superceded your stupidity… Can you say Fukishima? Containment? … didn’t think so. (BTW 2,000 minks is TINY fur farm by standards ok?)
Will they suffer being let out to their freedom? Probably death by nature sure as hell beats what Rodeghero offered them. Fur Farms aka Fatal Fashions, have no place in today’s world but yet they still exist. What drives fur farming? Simply put MONEY. Just hit them in the wallet and they scream bloody hell. And of course, those of the same species will be empathetic, just as the mink are to the suffering of their own species. Now as the FBI has been brought into our wee town here to ‘investigate’ the terrorism of this, we have something else to talk about now other than weather, corn, soybeans and cruise night.
On my lil spewage here, I apologize but I just hadda ‘spew’ on the topic. Plain ‘n simple, captivity of ANY animal for profit is only allowable if you would let those animals put your family in the same situation ok? Pass on the fur fashions this winter, pass on going to SeaWorld… rather tell Rodeghero how farming as an organic veggie man on all of that property would pay him back in spades for damage done already.
My only fear now is rabies in minks….
Peace Out!
Supporting from The Netherlands!
Seriously? Releasing that many animals into a reasonably small environment is a recipe for disaster. None of them have had to fend for themselves, or know how to make their own den. They’ve been kept in cages their entire lives. Yes, freedom is a wonderful thing. But surely not at the cost of the local, native wildlife? And, by the way, Jessica didn’t say whether the farmers she had spoken to were fur farmers, or regular farmers. She just said ‘farmers’. The probable ecological disaster, resulting from this en masse release, doesn’t bear thinking about. The ALF are idiots.
This issue isn’t about animals, it’s about the original weapons of mass destruction aka humans. It’s about cruelty, violence, heartlessness, and greed.
“What profit a man if he gains the world but looses his soul.”
As for the released mink suffering and dying due to their release, I would rather nature take care of its own than for an animal to spend one more day as the prisoner of a conscienceless creep who exploits them for greed. It just blows my mind that civil society still allows such barbarism for vanity to exist.
“We can’t change the heart, so we must stop the heartless.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
release them