In all the days of my life, I never expected to be talking about a mink escape.
I grew up in Pennsylvania and spent quite a bit of time outdoors, and while I’ve had my fair share of run ins with the typical deer, squirrels, groundhogs, and birds, I never even thought to be on the look out for a mink.
Side note, I did almost almost get eaten by some growling man eating beast, but that’s a story for another time…
Turns out, there’s a healthy population of mink roaming the Keystone State, living on the edges of rivers and lakes. According to the PA Game Commission, these approximately 2 foot long creatures are very efficient hunters, preying on rabbits, shrews, fish, snakes, and frogs. In the same family as weasels, wolverines, and badgers, these creatures have excellent hearing and sight and are able to pick up ultrasonic vocalizations by rodents, which they use to locate and hunt them down.
But, as with many animals, they are also farmed for their fur and one of those farms is located in Northumberland County, just south of Sunbury, and a few days ago the facility suffered a major problem.
According to WNEP, someone broke into the farm in the early hours of Sunday morning, cut holes in the fencing, and opened all of the animals’ enclosures.
This lead to approximately 7,000 minks getting loose and running rampant through the central Pennsylvania area.
While they were all raised in captivity and will not act like wild mink, it’s a dangerous situation for local animals. I’ve spent quite a bit a time in this part of the state and the number of people who keep animals outside is very high, meaning precautions need to be taken to avoid chickens, rabbits, dogs, koi ponds, and cats from being attacked by these somewhat furious little creatures.
PA Game Warden Mike Workman had the following to say
“Approximately 7,000 escaped (from) the facility. Now, how many that got outside the fenced area, we don’t know, but it was a sizable number from our estimation.
The mink that escaped are going to be a couple of different colors. You’re going to see them in the white color phase, black and brown. Now, most of the wild mink are going to be of that brown and tannish color.”
When asked what to do if you come into contact with one, he added…
“Just stay away. Don’t touch it, don’t try to trap it, and don’t try to catch it. They will bite you, and they can potentially hurt you. We want to make sure the public is safe.”
Police are still investigating who was responsible for this, although I’d have to guess it was some local kids trying to “save” the animals.
Unfortunately, at least a dozen were spotted dead on nearby roads, having been hit by cars. Many more will be gobbled up by coyotes and bobcats, while others will be unable to survive given they did not grow up outdoors.
What a wild thing happening in my homestate. Between this and the exorcism at a Home Depot I would go too, things are getting crazy in Pennsylvania…
