unintended consequences

The Seattle Times: Local News: Freed mink attack Sultan farms

The [10,000] mink were released Monday morning from the Roesler Brothers Fur Farm when someone cut through a fence and opened numerous cages. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group classified as a domestic terror organization by the FBI, has claimed responsibility in an e-mail to the media.

While I don’t necessarily agree with the fur trade and mink farming — by all accounts. mink are ill-tempered, nasty little bastards: their rescuers this week were advised to handle them with oven mitts to avoid being bitten — liberating 10,000 of them to prey on other livestock and housepets, to say nothing of introducing who knows what into the bloodlines of the wild mink doesn’t seem like a useful gesture.

In one move, a fringe group manages to alienate farmers and citizens who may have otherwise sympathized with their cause.