The BulleTin • Thursday, april 8, 2021 A13
OREGON LEGISLATURE | What lawmakers are debating in Salem | More stories on A14
Debate on prohibiting mink farms Oregon could ban
centers on coronavirus concerns fake green labeling
BY MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Arguments over
whether lawmakers should
prohibit mink farms in Oregon
recently centered on whether
coronavirus risks from such
operations are either unjustifi-
able or exaggerated.
Proponents of Senate Bill
832, which would ban mink
farming within nine months
of enactment, argue the ani-
mals pose a unique danger for
spreading the coronavirus and
amplifying its hazards to hu-
mans.
Mink are the only species
known to get infected by the
virus and then transmit it back
to people, said Jim Keen, a vet-
erinarian who serves on the
veterinary council of the Ani-
mal Wellness Action nonprofit.
The animals are housed
in stressful conditions under
which the virus can more read-
ily spread, adding to the risk of
new variants developing, Keen
said.
The species is also consid-
ered a top candidate for the
“missing link” that transmitted
the coronavirus between bats
and humans, starting or accel-
erating the pandemic, he said.
Oregon has only five mink
farms. One facility had a coro-
navirus outbreak, during
which three of the animals es-
caped, said Lori Ann Burd, en-
vironmental health program
director for the Center for Bio-
logical Diversity nonprofit.
Aside from the threat to
Arch Building
Continued from A1
Janice Bell said she was
looking for an up-and-coming
downtown for Arome’s second
location, and Redmond felt
like the perfect fit.
She and her husband al-
ready loved visiting Central
Oregon for recreational pur-
poses, Bell told The Bulletin.
And they preferred the smaller
feel — and lower real estate
prices — of downtown Red-
mond, compared to down-
town Bend.
“I think that Redmond is
just the right size: It’s accessi-
ble, still easy to park, there’s
room for growth,” Bell said
before the meeting. “It’s also
more affordable — there’s no
way we could buy a building in
downtown Bend. It’s just not in
reach for us.”
Bell told the Redmond City
Council on Tuesday that she
expects to hire six employees
to run the Arome store in Red-
mond, with salaries ranging
from $15 to $25 an hour.
The store will also host
cooking events with local
chefs, and sell goods from lo-
cals, Bell said.
“We love as much as possi-
ble to cater our business and
make it feel like a good fit for
the community,” she said. “If
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press file
Joe Ruef holds a mink at his farm in Mt. Angel. Ruef recently testified
against a bill that would ban mink farming in Oregon.
public health, escaped mink
can imperil related species
such as river otters, fishers and
martens, Burd said.
“This is not an attack on Or-
egon agriculture. This is look-
ing at the threat five operations
pose to us,” she said.
John Easley, a veterinarian
and mink industry consultant,
countered that mink farms
have developed new biosecu-
rity measures aimed at thwart-
ing coronavirus spread, in
collaboration with federal and
state agencies.
A vaccine against the coro-
navirus has been developed
for mink, which will further
reduce the chances of trans-
there’s anybody in the lo-
cal community who makes
custom butcher blocks, or
rose-serum coffee, those are
all things we’d like to (sell)
in Redmond.”
The city is giving Arome
two $49,000 loans to help
with renovating the Arch
Building, said Arnold. One
must be paid back within
10 years, but the other will
be forgiven as long as the
property stays active as a re-
tail operation.
“What (the city) didn’t
want to see is a building im-
proved, but nothing actively
happening in it,” Arnold
said.
The total renovation
project — which includes
fixing the building’s electri-
cal, plumbing and ventila-
tion systems, as well as add-
ing an accessible bathroom
— will cost an estimated
$912,000, according to city
documents.
Bell already has a
planned opening date for
Arome’s Redmond location:
Oct. 1.
“We can’t wait to get
started and get working,”
she said. “I think it’s go-
ing to be a fun addition to
downtown Redmond.”
Virus
e e
Reporter: 541-617-7854,
jhogan@bendbulletin.com
Continued from A1
Gov. Kate Brown said last week that a
“fourth wave” of infections was hitting Or-
egon.
“This virus is at our doorstep — our
numbers are rising and we are back on
alert,” Brown said during a Friday press
conference.
After falling steadily since January, new
cases bottomed out in late February at 249
per day on average. The case count rose to
an average of 419 cases per day at the end
of March. During the winter spike, daily
average cases in early December topped
1,500.
If residents stop wearing masks, prac-
ticing social distancing and limiting their
contacts, the number of cases could double
by next month, according to OHA fore-
casts.
“These are still concerning numbers in
their height and obviously the direction
they are going,” Allen said.
The virus reproduction is up above 1:1
for the first time since January. It is get-
ting close to the levels that led to the two-
week lockdown in December. However,
Sidelinger said it was unlikely that the kind
of infection growth seen at the end of last
year will occur again because of the grow-
ing number of vaccinated people. New
infections are increasingly in younger age
groups. They are less likely to suffer severe
illness or death than those 65 and over.
Oregon is six to eight weeks away from
having availability of vaccinations equal
demand. By late May or early June, there
will be more vaccine than people seeking
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CALL DEBBIE COFFMAN
AT 5413830384
mission and mutations, Easley
said.
Denmark, which euthanized
17 million mink after an out-
break, had 1,100 mink farms
in an area one-third the size of
Wisconsin, so the odds of virus
transmission among them was
much higher, he said.
Even so, the animals clear
the disease quickly and pose
a minimal threat to the public
health, Easley said. “The deci-
sion to cull an entire industry
was not warranted. The science
did not support that.”
Opponents of SB 832
claimed that battling the coro-
navirus pandemic is merely a
pretext for animal rights orga-
nizations to ban fur produc-
tion, which has long been their
aim.
The bill’s critics also argued
that prohibiting a single agri-
cultural sector would set a ter-
rible precedent for the state’s
farm industry.
Mink farmers testified that
provisions in SB 832 that
would provide them with loans
and training could not com-
pensate for the loss of their op-
erations.
Joe Ruef, a mink farmer
near Mt. Angel, said his fam-
ily has been in the industry for
50 years and would have no
other uses for the associated
equipment and would squan-
der valuable genetics if the bill
passes.
“We make every effort to
keep our employees safe and
our mink safe,” he said.
on nonrecyclables
BY CHRIS LEHMAN
The Oregonian
Oregonians would have an
easier time figuring out what
they’re allowed to put in their
curbside recycling bins and
what they must trash under a
measure that’s scheduled for
a vote in an Oregon Senate
Committee on Thursday.
Senate Bill 582 would pro-
hibit the use of the triangu-
lar “chasing arrows” symbol
on plastics products sold in
Oregon unless they are on a
state-approved list of items
that can genuinely be recy-
cled.
Supporters call the pro-
posal “truth in labeling.”
The idea is to make recy-
cling more financially viable
by reducing the amount of
nonrecyclable material that
ends up in recycling centers
and also reduce the market
for plastic goods that appear
recyclable due to their mark-
ings but in practical terms
are not.
It’s a problem that inten-
sified after China banned
imports of most types of sec-
ond-hand plastics in 2018,
which disrupted American
recycling markets.
Following that change, the
Oregon Department of En-
vironmental Quality formed
a stakeholder group to look
at ways to make the state’s
recycling program more sus-
COVID-19 across the U.S.
A variant of the coronavirus first identified
in Britain is now the most common strain
circulating in the United States. More than
200 strains of the virus have been identified
circulating in the U.S., but CDC officials say
B.1.1.7 is causing about 27% of new cases,
according to the agency’s latest data.
VACCINES: More than 108.3 million peo-
ple, or 32.6% of the U.S. population, have
received at least one dose of a coronavi-
rus vaccine, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Some 63
million people, or 19% of the population,
have completed their vaccination.
CASES: The seven-day rolling average for
daily new cases in the U.S. increased over
the past two weeks from 53,651 on March
23 to 64,791 on Tuesday, according to
Johns Hopkins University.
DEATHS: The seven-day rolling average
for daily new deaths in the U.S. decreased
over the past two weeks from 821 on
March 23 to 774 on Tuesday, according to
Johns Hopkins University.
— Associated Press
shots, OHA reported. It took from late
December to March 3 for 1 million shots
to be put in Oregonians’ arms. The state
passed 2 million shots this week, just a
month later. The state has topped 40,000
shots per day three times now and is aver-
aging about 35,000 daily shots. Most are
the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which
require two doses given about a month
apart.
Senior demand for vaccine is waning.
tainable.
Ironically, the chasing ar-
rows symbol was originally
designed to increase the rate
of recycling. But supporters
of the bill say product man-
ufacturers ended up putting
the symbol on nearly every-
thing to appear environmen-
tally responsible.
Waste collectors and local
governments tell residents
to ignore the symbol and in-
stead sort items based on the
shape of the container. That
kind of guesswork is what
backers of the measure are
hoping to eliminate.
“Oregon’s current labeling
law ensures that our custom-
ers are confused about what
is recyclable,” said Kristian
Mitchell, executive director
of the Oregon Recycling and
Refuse Association during a
February hearing. “The label-
ing directly contradicts the
message that collectors and
local governments use with
customers about what mate-
rials belong in the recycling
cart.”
Manufacturers are cool to
the idea.
“Packaging is not made
for just one state, or just one
country, for that matter,”
wrote Jeff Koch, president
of the American Packaging
Corp. Oregon’s requirement
“may not be compatible with
all U.S. or global sales.”
Older people made up the vast majority
of COVID-19 deaths in Oregon, and the
rest of the nation. Allen said over 70% of
people 70 and older have been vaccinated,
with the 30% unvaccinated including
those who declined to get shots. But as the
age groups drop, the demand is slowing.
Only 65% of residents 65-69 have been
vaccinated. In some rural parts of Oregon,
the number is under 50%. While the in-
ability to get to a vaccination site accounts
for some of the lower than expected fig-
ure, there is a significant portion of the age
group that does not want to get vaccinated
now, vaccinated at all or is waiting for the
one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“That seems to have semi-topped out”
Allen said of demand in some areas.
The state originally allocated each
county an amount of vaccine equal to its
percentage of the state’s population. But
with widely differing levels of demand
across the state, supplies will be redirected
in the near future to places where demand
is high but supply is low.
Sidelinger and Allen said they are con-
cerned about the recent increase in infec-
tions, but believe the worst can be over if
residents don’t act as if the pandemic is
over. The increasing number of vaccinated
people will “bend the curve” back down
as long as masks, social distancing and
hygiene recommendations are followed.
To those feeling “stir crazy” to get back to
something close to normal, Sidelinger said
the fastest route was to not let up so near
the end.
“These changes are a for-now thing, not
a forever thing,” Sidelinger said.
e e
gwarner@eomediagroup.com