Prime Minister of Denmark cries and apologizes for managing the mink crisis

Visibly moved, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen apologized on Thursday for managing the country’s mink crisis. The government decreed the slaughter of more than 15 million animals, after a mutation of the new coronavirus was found on farms, recognizing, later, that it had no legal basis to do so.

Mette Frederiksen visited, in Kolding, one of these farms, where the animals were sacrificed, even though they were healthy. It was after the visit that he apologized for the mistakes made, unable to hide his emotion, before the journalists.

“I have no problem apologizing for the course of events, because in fact mistakes have been made,” said Frederiksen. Among the pauses to try to contain and dry the tears, the head of the Government stressed that the responsibility was not of the mink breeders. “It is because of the virus, and I hope that there may be a little light at the end of the tunnel at this time for Danish mink breeders,” he said.

Denmark is the world’s largest exporter of mink fur. In early November, he announced the killing of more than 15 million mink in the country, as it was considered by several experts that the mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus found on farms could compromise the effectiveness of future vaccines.

The decision eventually led Agriculture Minister Mogens Jensen to step down last week, after the government recognized that it had no legal right to order the slaughter.

However, in the absence of new cases of the mutated version of the virus, the Ministry of Health concluded that the potential threat to human vaccines was “most likely extinct”.

More than two thirds of the estimated 15 to 17 million mink in the country have already been slaughtered.

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