With immediate effect, the Danish government withdraws the order to kill all 17 million mink on the fur farms in the country.
– Sorry, we have given the wrong order in relation to the law, says Minister of Food Mogens Jensen today.
Tuesday’s meeting in the Folketing with an urgent consideration of a new law has also been canceled.
Last week, Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen, Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mogens Jensen and the Statens Serums Institut (SSI) announced that all mink in Denmark should be killed, after finding mutated versions of the coronavirus that has spread from mink to humans.
12 people in North Jutland have been shown the mink variant of covid-19 – called cluster-5.
It is currently unknown how the mutations in the virus will affect its properties, and it is uncertain whether it has reached Norway. However, Norwegian health authorities fear that the new virus strain may reduce the effect of a future vaccine.
In Denmark, several legal experts have ruled that the order to kill 15 million mink is unconstitutional. Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mogens Jensen now also acknowledges this to Danes TV2.
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– We have made a mistake. We do not have legal authority to ask mink breeders to kill mink outside the zones that have been clarified. To demand it, we must have a legal basis for it. Therefore, it is also unfortunate that a letter has been sent to the breeders where it was unclear that this was a request from the government, he says.
Do not get through urgent law
In a written reply to Extra Bladet Sunday night, Jensen wrote that the government considered the situation so serious that there was no time to wait for ordinary legal proceedings.
A new bill was originally to be considered urgently in the Folketing on Tuesday. The plan has now been canceled, as the government has not received support from the opposition. It should instead be treated in the ordinary way, with three treatments.
The Minister nevertheless maintains the call for breeders to contribute to gaining control of the infection situation, by killing their animals.
– What it’s all about now is to help public health in the best possible way, he says.
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