Farmed mink killed on November 6, 2020 due to a coronavirus mutation in Denmark.

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Mads Claus Rasmussen / AP / SIPA

Vision of horror.

The country chose to get rid of it in a hurry to fight against Covid-19, but even dead and buried minks are still talking about them.

In a mass grave in western Denmark, corpses of animals rise to the surface under the effect of putrefactive gases, a few weeks after being buried.

The phenomenon occurred on military ground near Holstebro (west), in one of the improvised mass graves to bury the impressive mass of euthanized animals, according to images broadcast by public television DR.

Mink begravet for tæt på sø: 'Vi skal undgå forurening og smitterisiko' https://t.co/hEWRlZCTUD pic.twitter.com/prYuMcV72T

- DR Nyheder (@DRNyheder) November 24, 2020

Corpses only a meter deep

Raised from the earth under the accumulated pressure of rotting gases, the mink carcasses are no longer covered except by a thin layer of lime and very sandy soil, which would have facilitated the phenomenon according to the local police.

Thousands of farmed mink corpses, killed due to a coronavirus mutation, buried near Holstebro in Denmark, November 12, 2020. - Morten Stricker / AP / SIPA

In a statement, the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture said the mink are covered with a meter and a half to two meters of earth.

But according to DR, they were in this field only one meter deep.

Pollution of a lake to fear?

"The state plays with our nature and uses it as a dumping ground", lamented Leif Brøgger, a municipal councilor in Holstebro, quoted Wednesday by the daily Jyllands-Posten.

The animals which reappear were also buried 200 meters from a lake, 100 meters less than the recommendations.

This raises fears of phosphorus and nitrogen pollution problems, which the authorities have promised to remedy.

For the ministry, the reappearance of carcasses is "a temporary problem linked to the process of putrefaction of animals".

"The area will be monitored 24 hours a day until the installation of fences (...) and dead mink are regularly covered" with earth, he said.

The photos and videos have given rise to numerous comments on social media, with one Twitter user calling 2020 "the year of the mutant zombie killer minks."

Could you have a more 2020 headline?

"Mutant covid 'zombie minks' rise from the grave".

Spoiler: they're not actually zombies.

- Paul Hannon (@ PaulHannon29) November 25, 2020

In early November, Denmark announced that it was slaughtering its huge herd of more than 15 million mink, because of a problematic mutation of the coronavirus via these mustelids which could, according to preliminary studies, threaten the effectiveness of the future vaccine for humans.

Two weeks after sounding the alert - and in the midst of a political crisis over the decision's lack of legal basis - the government concluded on Thursday that this potential threat to human vaccines was "most likely extinct", in l absence of new case detected.

The Danish Minister of Agriculture, stuck in this affair, resigned on November 18.

More than 10 million mink have already been euthanized, according to the latest report.

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  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Health

  • Pollution

  • Fur

  • Breeding

  • Animals

  • Denmark