A British journalist, possibly accompanied by others, recently unlawfully entered a fur farm with almost 13 000 animals in Ostrobothnia, Finland. The act violates Finnish law. The journalist arrived at night and equipped with lights he filmed and photographed the animals using a flash.
The fur farmer experiences the incident as offensive and alarming. When an outsider unlawfully enters a farm, animals might deviate from normal behaviour, stress is a natural reaction in these cases. It’s very probable that the injuries and the behaviour the journalist surreptiously photographed is a sign of stress among the animals.
The incident also entails a risk of the highly infectious mink virus, plasmacytosis, spreading among the animals. The fur farm in Ostrobothnia was at least previously completely free from the virus. A person carelessly going from farm to farm might carry the infection with them and easily transfer the blood disease to healthy animals. This is the reason why protective wear such as shoe covers are always worn on normal visits to a fur farm. If the fur farm has been infected with plasmacytosis the business owner could experience a financial loss of up to half a million euros.