OT Gotta love irony...

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Jan 30, 2002
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IF the mink link works.

http://www.snopes.com/index.html

OK, link didn't go to the story, so here it is:

Claim: 6,500 minks set free by animal rights activists rampaged through the British countryside.
Status: True.

Origins: An attempt to free minks into the wild before they were turned into fur coats has resulted in a wildlife and domestic animal crisis in Britain. Minks, you see, are killers . . . a fact you might expect animal rights activists would have taken into account before unleashing them on an unsuspecting countryside.

What follows is one of the representative news articles about this August 1998 invasion brought on by good intentions gone horribly wrong:


In what must have seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, British animal-rights activists sneaked onto the grounds of a mink farm here during the weekend, cut through wire fences and gave 6,500 minks their freedom instead of a future as fur coats.
But the illegal act has backfired as few British animal-liberation missions ever have. Released into the rich countryside of England's southern coast, the thousands of minks have gone on a rampage driven by insatiable hunger and equally insatiable mink-like curiosity.

Domestic pets and farm animals -- including cats, hamsters, chickens, guinea pigs and hens -- have been pursued and killed. Wild animals -- including the endangered water vole, a type of water rat -- are under attack. Local fisheries are threatened.

And local residents, including the owners of a wild bird sanctuary where three birds were killed in mink attacks Sunday and Monday, have taken up arms. One of the dead birds was a beloved, 14-year-old kestrel named Spitfire who made countless educational trips to local schools.

The bird sanctuary "has become a restaurant for mink," said angry sanctuary manager Chris Milsom, who has armed himself with a shotgun to join other residents on mink hunts. Monday, Milsom showed the results of his latest foray: He upended a plastic grocery bag and five small, brown, furry and very dead minks fell onto the ground.

A group called Animal Liberation Front is believed responsible for the mink release from the Crow Hill Farm, although no one has stepped forward to formally take responsibility for the action.

Robin Webb, the group's news-media spokesman, defended the release Tuesday -- even though hundreds of the freed minks are now being gunned down by locals, except for those that are being run over by cars. Hundreds more have been returning on their own to the mink farm, though about 3,000 were believed still on the loose.

"Certainly some people may disagree with it, but the mink which have been shot and killed, had they remained where they were, they would have been killed in a barbarous manner to make fur coats which nobody needs," Webb said.

Webb said the released minks could be expected to "disperse" among an existing British wild mink population already numbering in the tens of thousands. Those wild minks are, ironically, the descendants of earlier fur-farm escapees imported from America to England by mink breeders in the 1920s.

But rather than mix with local wild minks, the newly freed minks seem to have minds all their own.

Several have wandered nonchalantly into local homes, including that of Crow Hill resident Christine Pinder. She was shocked Saturday morning when a mink -- which she at first thought was a kitten -- appeared in her bedroom and jumped at the throat of her pet dog.

"I took my husband's walking stick and I whopped it," she said.

Other minks have walked into a local 17th-century pub, the Crown Tap, with pub-goers unsuccessfully giving chase.

In the charming, thatched-roof village of Burley Lawn, resident Ed Gurd was alarmed Sunday to find a mink inside his house intently studying the cage of his daughter's pet hamster, Honey, as if it were contemplating lunch.

Those who freed the minks, Gurd said, "are totally irresponsible because of the destruction they're causing of the local wildlife. "

Great Britain has seen many animal-rights actions in the past: Wild cats have been released from Scottish zoos; the export of British veal has been blocked at French ports; even domestic salmon have been freed from Scottish fish farms.

But few actions have upset the British as much as this one.

"Wanted Dead or Alive: 3,000 Vicious Killers" said the headline in Monday's Daily Telegraph.

Officials and police were advising residents in the Crow Hill area to keep small domestic pets indoors -- though they were quick to assure locals that children are safe from mink attacks unless they grab at the long, thin animals, which have sharp teeth.




Something similar occured up around Madison a few years ago. Most were involved in traffic er confrontations.
 
I love those guys! :D

Edited to clarify: I love those UL guys. I have absolutely no patience at all for those "activists." :mad:
 
Just because the fur is soft and fuzzy, doesn't mean the critter inside is.

Dumbasses--Turn loose thousands of animals raised like that anywhere and there's bound to be a big problem. Dogs, cats, cows, rabbits, etc. doesn't matter. They thought perhaps they were going to go to the store and buy pet-chow??
 
You can always tell who works for the gov't by how careless we, er, I mean they are about misusing acronyms.

UL = urban legend

:footinmou :o
 
THE HAMSTER STORY

If you have raised kids (or been one), and gone through the pet syndrome including toilet-flush burials for dead goldfish, then you'll like this story.

Overview: I had to take my son's hamster to the vet.

Here's what happened: Just after dinner one night, my son came up to tell me there was "something wrong" with one of the two hamsters he holds prisoner in his room. "He's just lying there looking sick," he told me. I'm serious, Dad. Can you help?"

I put my best hamster-healer statement on my face and followed him into his bedroom. One of the little rodents was indeed lying on his back, looking stressed. I immediately knew what to do. "Honey," I called, "come look at the hamster!"

"Oh, my gosh," my wife diagnosed after a minute. "She's having babies."

"What?" my son demanded. "But their names are Bert and Ernie, Mom!"

I was equally outraged. "Hey, how can that be? I thought we said we didn't want them to reproduce," I accused my wife.

"Well, what do you want me to do, post a sign in their cage,?" she inquired. (I actually think she said this sarcastically!)

"No, but you were supposed to get two boys!" I reminded her, (in my most loving, calm, sweet voice,
while gritting my teeth together).

"Yeah, Bert and Ernie!" my son agreed.

"Well, it's just a little hard to tell on some guys, ya know," she informed me. (Again with the sarcasm, ya think?)

By now the rest of the family had gathered to see what was going on. I shrugged, deciding to make the best of it. "Kids, this is going to be a wondrous experience," I announced. "We're about to witness the miracle of birth."

"OH, Gross!", they shrieked.

"Well, isn't THAT just Great! What are we going to do with a litter of tiny little hamster babies?" my wife wanted to know. (I really do think she was being snotty here, too. Don't you?)

We peered at the patient. After much struggling, what looked like a tiny foot would appear briefly,
vanishing a scant second later. "We don't appear to be making much progress," I noted.

"It's breech," my wife whispered, horrified.

"Do something, Dad!" my son urged.

"Okay, okay." Squeamishly, I reached in and grabbed the foot when it next appeared, giving it a gingerly tug. It disappeared. I tried several more times with the same results.

"Should I call 911?" my eldest daughter wanted to know. "Maybe they could talk us through the trauma." (You see a pattern here with the females in my house?)

"Let's get Ernie to the vet," I said grimly. We drove to the vet with my son holding the cage in his lap. Breathe, Ernie, breathe," he urged.

"I don't think hamsters do Lamaze," his mother noted to him. (Women can be so cruel to their own young. I mean what she does to me is one thing, but this boy is of her womb, for God's sake.)

The vet took Ernie back to the examining room and peered at the little animal through a magnifying glass.

"What do you think, Doc, a c-section?" I suggested scientifically.

"Oh, very interesting," he murmured.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cameron, may I speak to you privately for a moment?" I gulped, nodding for my son to step outside. "Is Ernie going to be okay?" my wife asked.

"Oh, perfectly," the vet assured us. "This hamster is not in labor. In fact, that isn't EVER going to happen... Ernie is a boy."

"What !?"

"You see, Ernie is a young male. And occasionally, as they come into maturity, like most male species, they um.... er.... masturbate. Just the way he did, lying on his back." He blushed, glancing at my wife. "Well, you know what I'm saying, Mr. Cameron."

We were silent, absorbing this. "So Ernie's just...just...Excited?", my wife offered.

"Exactly," the vet replied, relieved that we understood.

More silence.

Then my vicious, cruel wife started to giggle. And giggle. And then even laugh out loud.

"What's so funny?" I demanded, knowing, but not believing that the woman I married would commit the
upcoming affront to my flawless manliness.

Tears were now running down her face.

"It's just...that...I'm picturing you pulling on its...its...teeny little..." she gasped for more air to bellow in laughter once more.

"That's enough," I warned.

We thanked the Veterinarian and hurriedly bundled the hamsters and our son back into the car. He was glad everything was going to be okay.

"I know Ernie's really thankful for what you've done, Dad," he told me.

"Oh, you have NO idea," my wife agreed .
 
While this may be an Urban Legend, something similar happened a few years back at the U of M, though definitely not funny. Apparently some animal rights activists decided that University Medical School research labs, where the evil doctors and students were researching such evil things as the cure for cancer, restoring sight to the blind, etc... was abusing animals. So with such horrible things taking place in local university they decide that they must take action and waltz into the labs at night to free the poor defenseless lab rats. However not content in freeing the penned up rats, they decide to teach these evil doctors and research students a lesson by destroying years worth of research by burning papers, destroying computers (along with disks), and generally destroying lab equipment. So not only have they succeeded in freeing the poor lab rats, but they have succeeded in stopping the evil doctors and research students from finding such horrible things like the cure for cancer.:mad: In the end, the costs in damages were in the millions, at least 10 years worth of research was lost, many grad students found their entire stint in grad school burned up, etc... As for the defenseless lab rats, they were found dead by the highway where the enlightened animal rights people dumped them (since I guess what better place to free lab rats than in the middle of a city by the highway). The domesticated rats had no idea what to do when left on the side of the road, how to fend for themselves in the wild so almost all of them died in a mix between natural predators, starvation, and being plain hit by cars.:barf:
 
Good one, Yvsa!

We had a mink farmer about 3 miles out of town. Every so often one or two would get out, and go on a rampage. They would go into a chicken coop and kill every chicken without eating any of them, just for the fun of it.

Put 'em on coats, see if I care.
 
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