Why condemn mink for overeating and stockpiling food? Humans do it all the time
Cllr Gleeson seems to have a problem with mink because they are predators which are compelled to eat to survive. He particularly criticises them for killing more than they need “in a wholly wanton manner”.
This anthropomorphic view is unfair to a creature acting purely on instinct and not out of some perceived form of malice. Many species, including humans, are guilty of overeating and stockpiling food for future use. This doesn’t deem them deserving of a death sentence.
Wild predators which engage in surplus killing are acting on the wishes of mother nature, not because they are greedy or mean.
Ecologists believe that if a mink happens to find itself presented with lots of birds, it will take more than it needs to reduce the population closer to a natural balance.
Cllr Gleeson’s portrayal of mink as a major agricultural menace is not based on fact.
Few farmers keep poultry nowadays and the impenetrable factory farms of birds crammed into cages are unlikely to be threatened by a mink looking for an easy meal.
Writing in the Irish Examiner last May, Dick Warner told of how he lost two hens to a predator which breached a storm-damaged enclosure. His level-headed response, which any wise farmer would appreciate, was that he himself was to blame for not properly securing the birds. It’s tough being a predator in the countryside and I bear him no grudge, he said, adding that unless you want to go hungry, “you have to be smart and grab an opportunity when it’s offered”.
Instead of waging a war on a small, voiceless animal, Cllr Gleeson should take on the fur farms where mink are gassed before having the fur peeled from their bones. It is from these fur farms that mink originally escaped or were purposely released into the countryside.
Philip Kiernan
Irish Council Against Blood Sports
PO Box 88
Mullingar
Co Westmeath
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