What’s the Deal with the Danish Zombie Minks?
The truth behind the zombie minks — as told by a Dane.
I’ve always had my suspicions that 2020 would end in a zombie apocalypse. It would be the only fitting finale to the year —devastating wildfires, a global pandemic, killer wasps, and finishing off with a zombie outbreak. In my mind, however, I did not imagine my home country of Denmark being the location of patient zero. And patient zero being a mink.
Minks sure are stubborn — even after death
For those of you unfamiliar with the Danish mink scandal (as referred to by the Danish media), it began in November of 2020 when a new mutation of the Covid-19 virus, known as Y453F, was discovered in minks residing in one of the thousands of fur farms in rural Denmark. The virus was spreading among the closely caged animals and had in some cases been transferred to humans. What proved to be most concerning, however, was the fact that studies showed that the new virus was more resilient against antibodies. And with the entire world waiting in anticipation of a vaccine in the coming months, the Danish government decided to squash the oncoming outbreak as fast as possible.
The decision to terminate over 15 million minks proved to be a less popular decision in the Danish prime minister’s otherwise well-received pandemic plan. And it certainly didn’t help that the now buried mink corpses were rising from the ground.
How to dispose a body
After the minks were put down, it was imperative that the corpses were quickly disposed of to minimize spreading the mutated strain. Many were buried in mass graves as the incineration plants just couldn’t keep up. However, this proved to be a poor decision for multiple reasons:
- The staggering number of decaying animals could lead to a potential contamination of the ground water and the surrounding environment.
- The animals still posed as a potential source of exposure to the mutated strain. Excavating the carcasses and transporting them to the incineration plants would be an immense gamble.
- During the decomposition process, the carcasses produced gasses that would eventually push the shallowly buried animals out of the sandy ground. Hence, zombie mink.
The first time I heard the term “zombie mink” was on American news. Danes really love it when our country receives international attention. This time, however, was puzzling — why were international media reporting on a “zombie outbreak” in Denmark, when the Danish media wasn’t?
I can’t say for certain who made up the term “zombie mink”, but The Guardian was one of the first major news companies to report about the incident on November 25th 2020. Subsequently, it became somewhat of a hot topic in the media, and Denmark, formerly known as the motherland of Mads Mikkelsen, was now known as “the birthplace of zombie minks”. Not exactly the type of international attention we could’ve hoped for.
Realistically, the reason why the controversy of the “Danish zombie minks” wasn’t even heard of in Denmark, was because many other mink-related issues were much more dire.
The post-zombie world
Following the mink scandal, the Danish government had terminated an entire profession. Mink farming is now a trade of the past, and Denmark can no longer export large amounts of fur overseas. One might argue that the fur industry was already in decline, as animal welfare and ethics have become an increasingly more prominent issue in the past ten-twenty years. It’s no secret that the minks kept at the farms are often living under less than mediocre conditions —their cages are tiny and very closely arranged. It’s no wonder that the mutated virus would spread among the animals like wildfire.
You might be thinking: “Too bad all those minks had to die. Was there really no other way?” Truly, it is a shame, but perhaps the only solution. Minks aren’t pets — they’re an invasive species in Denmark and can cause severe harm to our environment. At the zoo, where I work part-time, we’ve fittingly named our two minks “Pest” and “Plague”. They are cute, though, and they thankfully have plenty of space to roam around.
So, what now?
Well, the zombie minks are no longer an issue, but they will eventually have to be dug up from their temporary resting places. The Danish government is currently preparing plans to excavate and properly dispose of the carcasses. They speculate that this could be a year-long process. But it’s necessary. The natural environment in Denmark is already hanging by a thread after centuries of heavy industrial farming and massive emissions of organic pollutants to the ecosystems. We can’t afford to take any risks.
The former mink farmers are currently seeking financial replacements for their lost revenue — and we are talking billions. There has since been countless of protests against the prime minister and her decision to end mink farming. I feel sorry for the people who’ve lost their livelihoods, but I think they’re missing the bigger picture: There’s no saying how severe this mink mutation might have been or what effects it would’ve had on the spreading of the virus, but at least we no longer have to speculate. And perhaps we’ve just narrowly avoided a global disaster.
