12A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015
Mink: Industry represents tiny niche in U.S. agriculture
Continued from Page 1A
Sustainable farming
$120
U.S. mink prices
$100 †
(Price per pelt/U.S. dollars*)
But mink farmers see irony
*Based on USDA reports for the previous year’s production.
in the bull’s-eye on their oper-
† Fur Commission USA estimate.
ations, even as they heed Fly-
80
nn’s warnings to install infra-
red alarms or improve fencing
around their farms. Activists
are willing to commit felonies
to put mink farms out of busi-
40 $25.50
ness in the name of Mother
$56.30: Down
Nature, but mink farmers ar-
46.3% from 2013
gue the fur trade is perhaps as
sustainable as any industry in
Source: Fur Commission USA
John O’Connell and Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
agriculture.
0
For example, mink are
1990
2000
2010
2014
raised on agricultural waste
products — keeping spent
hens, off-grade eggs, unus-
DEOH FKHHVH ¿VK JXWV EHHI
byproducts and other protein
VRXUFHVRXWRIODQG¿OOV(YHQ
minks’ manure and carcasses
are recycled.
Digesters fueled by mink
manure produce power in the
Canadian province of Nova
Scotia. Mink carcasses yield
one of the best oils for pre-
serving leather and tires, and
are used as crab bait.
“It is widely used, and a
lot of people do seek it out,”
said John Corbin, chairman of
the Oregon Dungeness Crab
Commission.
Most of Mount Angel mink
farmer Joe Ruef’s mink car-
FDVVHV JR WR FUDE ¿VKHUPHQ
Ruef fertilizes his grass seed,
corn, wild rice and pumpkin
¿HOGVZLWKPLQNPDQXUHDQG
mixes it with bark and other
ingredients for a compost sold
by local nurseries.
Ruef mixes his own feed,
relying heavily on salmon and
KHUULQJUHPDLQVIURP¿VKSUR
cessors.
“I joke that we’re green-
MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI — EO Media Group
er than a lot of the guys who
think they’re green because Joe Ruef holds a mink at his farm in Mount Angel.
they drive a Prius in Port-
California that prepare, store erative provides its suppliers
land,” Ruef said.
and ship agricultural by- with income for waste prod-
Agriculture’s recycler products such as trout, beef ucts they’d otherwise have to
Wisconsin is the top spleens and livers and poultry pay to remove.
mink-producing state, but innards.
“It’s kind of a double bo-
Utah boasts the most mink
The cooperative also buys nus for those farmers and
farms and the largest U.S. about 3 million pounds per ranchers,” Falco said.
mink food cooperative.
year of off-grade pet food
Though the cooperative is
The Fur Breeders Agri- from Utah and California strictly a food supplier, even
cultural Cooperative supplies manufacturers, although the it hasn’t escaped the notice of
131 ranchers in Utah and pet food industry also com- the animal rights movement.
(DVWHUQ ,GDKR PL[LQJ DERXW petes with the cooperative ,Q DFWLYLVWV VHW ¿UH WR
130 million pounds of feed when it purchases beef by- one of its buildings. No one
per year.
products on the open market. was injured, and the arsonists
Mink are bred in early
A lunch meat supplier were prosecuted, Falco said.
March and born during early sells the cooperative 10,000-
Mink’s association
May. The busiest seasons for 20,000 pounds per day of
Fur Commission USA,
the cooperative are summer waste and product no longer
and fall, when the mink grow ¿W IRU KXPDQ FRQVXPSWLRQ funded by a 15-cent assess-
to full size.
The cooperative buys corn ment on each U.S. mink pelt,
“The mink require a lot of and wheat from Intermoun- DGPLQLVWHUV D KXPDQH FHUWL¿
protein,” said Chris Falco, the tain Farmers Association, cation program, whose partic-
cooperative’s general manag- blending the grain with sup- ipants voluntarily agree to ex-
er. “Here in Utah, because we plemental vitamins and min- ceed minimum requirements
don’t have any large sources erals. It also contracts directly for cage density, inspections
of any one product, we use a with cheese plants and egg and veterinary care.
variety of products.”
Whelan, the commission’s
producers for their by-prod-
The cooperative employs ucts and with Amalgamated executive director, said about
55 workers at its various lo- Sugar for beet pulp.
95 percent of U.S. mink come
cations, including Utah plants
Founded in 1939 to pre- IURPFHUWL¿HGRSHUDWLRQV
for mixing rations in Logan vent competition for food
“We started behind the
and Midvale and plants in sources among area mink pro- HLJKWEDOO´:KHODQVDLG³(Y
Washington state, Idaho and ducers, Falco said the coop- eryone thought we were a cru-
MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI — EO Media Group
Joe Ruef discusses the manure collected from his farm in Mount Angel.
Todd Hawkes,
manager of the
Fur Breeders Ag-
ricultural Cooper-
ative mixing plant
in Logan, Utah,
watches as water
is added to meal
in the process of
mixing a batch of
mink feed.
JOHN O’CONNELL
EO Media Group
el industry, so we had to come
out stronger than what the
minimums were.”
Whelan admits the mink
industry is often reluctant to
tout its own virtues.
“We have some very violent
and criminal detractors,” Whel-
an said. “I want to say what a
great business we’re in, but I
don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
(LJKW FHQWV RI WKH DVVHVV
ment per pelt goes to re-
search, such as a recent study
concluding infrared lights on
alarm systems don’t disrupt
mink breeding, contrary to the
beliefs of many mink farmers.
Whelan said U.S. mink
prices have been strong for
the past decade, with a few
“hiccups,” and available pelts
have consistently sold out.
Fur prices reached record
highs in 2013, when the aver-
age pelt price was about $100.
The price surge prompted the
Chinese to double their pro-
duction to nearly 40 million
pelts. Prices plummeted to
about $50 per pelt in 2014 due
to overproduction and a mild
winter in China that reduced
the demand for mink coats.
An economic meltdown in
Russia also caused demand
there to tumble.
The U.S. sold about 3.9
million pelts from the 2013
crop in 2014, Whelan said.
Less than halfway through the
current auction season, Whel-
an said prices are up about 20
percent from last year, though
Dog park: ‘This isn’t forever, I hope’
Continued from Page 1A
“This isn’t forever, I hope,” said LaMear,
who had wanted a dog park. “But, certainly
for this year, it’s just not possible.”
City Councilor Zetty Nemlowill said
the decision would be disappointing to the
many residents, including the Astoria Dog
Park Friends, who had worked for a year
WR¿QGDSODFHZKHUHGRJVZRXOGEHIUHHWR
romp off leash. But she said the city rightly
looked at the cost before moving forward
with a project.
Nemlowill said the city is “already
stretched thin. And we simply do not have
the money to maintain a dog park right now.
So I think that you are making the right
move in bringing this up, Mayor.”
The reversal is the latest example of
LaMear’s nimble leadership style since she
took power as mayor in January. Rather than
dig in, the new mayor has shown a willing-
ness to set aside her own policy preferences
when the circumstances or political realities
shift.
LaMear, who had long defended pros-
ecuting drunken-driving cases in the city’s
Municipal Court, agreed to move the cases
to Circuit Court after calculating the political
will of the council. The retired librarian, who
made the renovation of the Astoria Public
Library the focal point of her campaign last
year, stepped back from a plan to demolish
the old Waldorf Hotel as part of the library’s
expansion after preservationists urged the
city to spare the hotel.
“I would like, once again, to thank the
PD\RUIRUKHUÀH[LELOLW\WRVWHSEDFNIURPDQ
item that she has been passionate for and say,
‘This may not be the right time or the right
place to push it forward,’” Councilor Drew
Herzig said of LaMear’s shift on the dog
SDUN³,WKLQNWKDWWKDWUHDOO\UHÀHFWVZHOORQ
her leadership and I thank her for that.”
have any false alarms.”
Palmer has also hired peo-
ple to patrol his sheds at night.
In Mount Angel, Ruef also
consulted with Flynn, and
added more security cam-
eras. But Ruef won’t be de-
terred from showing off his
farm to school children and
others who request tours. He
believes ignorance about the
fur industry poses the greatest
threat.
In addition to traveling
around the country to assess
mink farms, Flynn maintains
Farm security
a database, tracking protest
Lew Palmer’s farm was locations and animal rights
attacked in October of 1997. activities to warn produc-
With help from other mink ers when they could be at a
farmers and neighbors, Palm- heightened risk. Flynn noted
er managed to round up all the extremists have published
but 75 of the more than 4,000 a document called “The Final
mink that animal rights activ- Nail” — essentially a blue
ists released.
print for attacking farms —
But Palmer, a fourth-gen- and now have access to names
eration mink farmer in Pres- and addresses of virtually ev-
ton, Idaho, said it took years ery producer.
Flynn assures producers
to recover from the attack.
Hundreds of mink later suc- WKDWWKHGD\VRI¿QGLQJVHFX
cumbed to disease, weakened ULW\ E\ NHHSLQJ D ORZ SUR¿OH
by the shock, Palmer said. His in a rural location are over.
mink also struggled to breed Flynn asked that his picture
the following spring. Palmer not be used with this story to
didn’t have the wherewithal avoid being recognized by an-
to improve his security until imal rights activists.
“I’m not afraid to call
a few years ago, after consult-
these (activists) terrorists be-
ing with Flynn.
“He put a bug in my ear, cause you can see the negative
and then I got all sorts of engi- effect it has on these families,
neers out there,” Palmer said. where a farmer is sleeping in
“It basically comes down to a a pickup truck in the evening
EXQFKRIPRQH\WU\LQJWR¿QG hours instead of being at home
a security system that won’t with his wife,” Flynn said.
it’s too early to tell if the trend
will continue.
Whelan said fur has been
incorporated into a wider
range of products than ever
before, including ear muffs,
hand bags, shoes and even fur-
niture. In the fashion industry,
more than 500 designers are
now using fur, compared with
fewer than 40 a decade ago.
“It’s no longer just your
grandma’s full-length coat,”
Whelan said. “There’s fur for
every price point now.”
Burials: Money from
fees, interest from city’s
fund has not kept pace
with maintenance costs
Continued from Page 1A
ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian file
Lorna, right, a yellow Lab and pit bull mix, rumbles around the dog park at Eben
H. Carruthers Memorial Park with Oly, middle, a yellow Lab, and Max, a Boston
terrier. The dog park is the closest place to Astoria where pups can romp off-leash.
Room to roam
The Parks and Recreation Department
had explored several sites for a dog park,
including land near Alderbrook Lagoon
known as “Stinky Beach” and Tapiola Park,
but encountered strong neighborhood oppo-
sition.
After a town hall meeting at City Hall in
March, an interim dog park at John Warren
Field looked to have community support.
The city was in talks with the hospital to use
WKHIRRWEDOO¿HOGIRU¿YH\HDUVRUORQJHU
But the issue was left off the Parks and
Recreation Board’s agenda in late March,
when the board was expected to make a
recommendation on a dog park to the City
Council.
The city plans to use a portion of the
IRRWEDOO¿HOGDVDVWDJLQJDUHDIRUWKHQH[W
phase of a sewer improvement project. An-
gela Cosby, the director of the Parks and
Recreation Department, said the city would
have had to decide whether to share the
¿HOGRUZDLWXQWLOHDUO\QH[W\HDUWRRSHQ
a dog park.
Money, however, was the more pressing
problem. The Parks and Recreation Depart-
ment has been criticized for not adequately
maintaining city parks, so some residents
questioned why the city would add to that
burden with a dog park.
A dog park could be included in a new
master plan for parks that the city might pur-
sue over the next year.
“I’m sure there will be a large number of
people who are pretty upset,” Cosby said,
“and then also a large number of people who
are thinking, ‘Oh, that makes sense.’”
Several people with
loved ones buried at the
cemetery have grum-
bled to the city about its
appearance. The city has
promised perpetual care
through an irreducible
fund.
Money generated by
the fees and interest from
the fund has not kept pace
with maintenance costs,
forcing the city to sub-
sidize Ocean View with
about $56,000 each year.
“This fee increase
would begin closing the
gap,” City Manager Brett
(VWHVWROGWKH&LW\&RXQ
cil.
City Councilor Russ
Warr, who owns Astoria
Granite Works, which
makes headstones and
grave markers used at
the cemetery, declared a
potential conflict of in-
terest before his vote in
favor of the fee increas-
es. His business could
be impacted by the fee
hikes.
JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian file
Ocean View Cemetery opened in 1898. It has more
than 16,000 plots.