User:S k y r/Workzone/2020 Danish mink slaughter

Original article: The Mink Case

The 2020-2022 Danish mink culling scandals (Danish:: Minksagen, lit. The Mink Case) is a series of scandals involving the culling off all 13.5 million mink farmed for their fur in Denmark starting at November 4, 2020, after it was discovered that COVID-19 had spread to mink and higher risk of disease spread was feared. It was later becoming clear that the orders were given without legal basis and were instead politically motivated.

The government then put forward a bill, which, with its adoption on December 21, 2020, established legal authority behind the culling order. In the meantime, the culling continued illegally with the help of the police, and other authorities. Large quantities were buried in mass graves, but later exhumed and disposed of by incineration, because the buried carcasses posed the danger of polluting the local groundwater.

In addition, a ban on mink breeding was established in 2021, and later extended until December 31, 2022. As of 2022, the scandal is estimated to have caused dkk20 billion (US$ billion) in financial damages. Payment of financial compensation to mink breeders is expected to be finished in 2027.

Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark, who gave out the culling orders, later described the case as a political scandal.

First SARS-CoV-2 infections in mink
On 15 June 2020, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration registered COVID-19 infection on mink herds in Vendsyssel, North Jutland. The authorities decided that the minks on these farms should be culled to prevent further spread of the infection. In September, the SSI warned about a "special mink variant" which had spread in North Jutland. This SARS-CoV-2 variant was later named Cluster 5 by SSI. Concerns about potential reduced vaccine efficacy of this new COVID-19 variant were expressed shortly after. On October 1, the government announced that all mink within a radius of 7.8 km of an infected farm were to be culled. This included approximately 100 farms in North Jutland, even though only 41 farms had infections in mink.

Risk assessment
Later on October 13, it emerged that the mutated coronavirus that was found in Danish mink could reduce the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. Following this, SSI published a new risk assessment on November 3, 2020, which concluded that "continued mink breeding during an ongoing COVID-19 epidemic poses a significant risk to public health, including the possibilities of preventing covid-19 with vaccines".

The SSI's risk assessment, which was the main argument behind the decision, was subsequently criticized by other experts for being based on a weak professional basis. Jan Gerstoft, the chief physician and professor at the Rigshospitalet hospital, said, "The interpretation from the Statens Serum Institut simply does not hold up." Professor of immunology Jens Christian Jensenius said "The results of Anders Fomsgaard's preliminary experiments have been developed by Kåre Mølbak to misuse science and promote the dramatic decision November 4. This decision was not made on an evidence-based basis." Furthermore, the Danish Medicines Agency assessed on November 9 that the mutations did not pose a significant threat to the effectiveness of first-generation vaccines. Furthermore, on 2 November, two days before the press conference at which the slaughter was announced, SSI had outlined a model in which the breeding animals would have survived.

Before the completion of SSI's risk assessment, the University of Copenhagen was presented with the data base from SSI. They dismissed a vaccine threat; so did the director of the Danish Health Authority, Søren Brostrøm, who explained, "I strongly warned against cluster 5 being the basis for a new risk assessment."

Five days after the press conference, Kåre Mølbak changed his assessment and stated, "Our biggest concern since June has been the large reservoir for viruses that mink constitutes." Head of department in SSI, Tyra Grove Krause stated in this connection that the ongoing trial, highlighted by Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke at the press conference, did not document that the Cluster 5 variant posed a threat to a future vaccine.

Culling orders
On November 4, 2020, Prime Minister Frederiksen gave the order cull all mink in Denmark, including the breeding animals. Frederiksen and several other central ministers were present at a prior meeting. In the annexes handed out to the meeting participants six minutes before the start of the meeting, doubts were cast on the legality of the order. In the following hours and days, all 13.5 million mink within Denmark were euthanized. The farmers were offered a "speed bonus" if they killed their mink quickly. The Police, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, the Armed Forces and the Home Guard assisted without regard to legal authority.

Initial lack of legal basis
] Shortly before the government ordered all the of Denmarks mink to be culled, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration tried to warn of legal problems. The agency contacted the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and asked for a contact in the Ministry of Justice, because the agency did not believe that there was a legal basis for killing all the country's mink. Later that evening, the ministry indicated to the Ministry of Justice that the Danish Food and Food Administration's assessment was that there was no authority to kill all mink. The following day, the Ministry of Justice stated that the ministry has no grounds for overriding the assessment. It was agreed that new legislation should be made to obtain authorization to kill mink outside the zones. On the evening of November 5, Kopenhagen Fur approached the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration and requested clearer communication to the mink breeders, who felt frustration and confusion.

At the request of Kopenhagen Fur and the Ministry of the Environment and Food, the agency sent a proposal for a letter to all mink breeders to the ministry's head of department. The letter concerned both mink in and outside the infection zones. The ministry recently sent some proposals for corrections back to the agency, and the agency corrected them in the letter. That same afternoon, the ministry sends the email to the agency stating that the agency is "forced to initiate the culling before the numbers are up. Both on infected and non-infected herds", and that it should "be clear from the letter to the mink breeders that they just have to start".

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration sent the letter to the mink breeders via Kopenhagen Fur. The letter stated, "The government has announced that all mink in the country must be culled for reasons of public health. It is important that the cullings take place as soon as possible". To the mink breeders outside the infection zones, it was stated, "The culling of all mink (including breeding animals) must be over by 16 November 2020. You must therefore start culling and furring the herd as soon as possible. You must pay particular attention that there is no mink, who escape and run into nature".

On November 8, then Minister of Food Mogens Jensen informed the Danish Parliament and the press that the government had neither the legal authority for the ongoing culling of all mink nor speed bonuses. The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration then sent a new letter to the mink breeders that said it was not an order, but an "invitation" to kill outside the zones, and that the government was working to secure the necessary legal authority to require all mink to be culled.

L 77 bill
As a consequence of the lack of legal authority, on November 16, 2020 (published on November 10), Food Minister Rasmus Prehn put forward a bill on the culling of all mink and a temporary ban on keeping mink. The bill (L 77) also contained authority for the payment of a bonus to the mink breeders who contributed to the killing of their animals. After a settlement between the government and its supporting parties (Radikale Venstre, Socialistisk Folkeparti, Enhedslisten) and the Alternative December 16, the bill was adopted on December 21, 2020, which established a legal basis for the decisions. The bourgeois parties voted against it. In a draft of the bill from the government, it appeared to assert that it had been the SSI's recommendation to cull all mink in Denmark. This was rejected by SSI, which emphasized that it was a political decision. In addition to the adoption of L 77, the Mink Commission was also raised as a consequence of the case. The government initially tried to get the bill expedited, which requires a three-quarters majority in the Danish Parliament. The government abandoned this.

After November 8, disagreement arose among legal professionals as to how the orders actually lacked legal authority. In the Mink Commission's report, it was stated that the orders were "grossly misleading and clearly illegal".

Mink Commission
On April 23, 2021, the Danish parliament (Danish: Folketing) set up a Mink Commission (Danish: Minkkommissionen) whose task was to "investigate and report on the overall course of events and on the actions and involvement of all relevant authorities and ministers in the decision and the implementation of the decision that all mink in Denmark as part of the effort to fight against COVID-19 should immediately be culled". However, the Mink Commission was not allowed to make a legal assessment of the responsibility of ministers.

During the preparation of the commission's report, it emerged on November 1, 2021 that Mette Frederiksen and advisers in the State Ministry had deleted text messages exchanged during the mink process, and that these had not been handed over to the Mink Commission, even though the latter had already requested it on April 29, 2021. At a press conference on November 3, 2021, Frederiksen stated that an automatic deletion function on her phone had been switched on since the summer of 2020 at the latest. This after advice from Barbara Bertelsen, which she confirmed when she was questioned on November 18, 2021.

The police subsequently attempted to recover the text messages and announced to the public on November 12 that they had finished the recovery attempt without success. On the same day, the government received the results of the police test in sealed envelopes. On Monday, November 15 at 09:00, a meeting was held between the Mink Commission, the Ministry of Justice, Mette Frederiksen and the three top officials in the Prime Minister's Office, who had switched on the automatic deletion of text messages after 30 days. On November 17, Frederiksen published the result of the police investigation, which was that it had not been possible to recreate the deleted text messages. The prime minister was criticized for delaying the announcement of the result until Wednesday, the day after the 2021 municipal and regional council elections, when she had the opportunity to announce it immediately after the meeting on Monday. When asked why she waited to announce the result until Wednesday, the prime minister replied, "It's because I've been preoccupied with some other things, it almost goes without saying." During the period, Frederiksen had, among other things, been in Hjørring and Aarhus to run an election campaign.

During his questioning at the Mink Commission, Mogens Jensen said he was only made aware of the missing permit on Saturday, November 7 at 18:31. The Mink Commission later wrote that "The Commission has assumed that Mogens Jensen received information earlier, namely on November 5, 2020. The Commission thus finds that Mogens Jensen, at least during the consultation on November 11, 2020, provided incorrect information."

After it was revealed that he had spoken untruthfully to Parliament, Minister of Food Mogens Jensen found that there was not a majority behind his continued work as minister, and he submitted his resignation on November 18, 2020.

The commission submitted its report on June 30, 2022, in which it appeared that the decision to kill all Danish mink was without legal authority. The commission concluded: ""The Commission thus finds that Mette Frederiksen's announcements at the press conference on 4 November 2020 were objectively grossly misleading, but that Mette Frederiksen subjectively did not have knowledge of this or the intention to do so. The Commission has therefore not made an assessment of whether there is gross negligence"."

The commission also concluded that Frederiksen must have been aware that the KU meeting was organized and material prepared in a forced process. Frederiksen's announcements at the press conference on November 4, where she ordered all mink euthanized, were "grossly misleading and clearly illegal".

The report said the Prime Minister's Office as a whole had acted "very criticisably" and the Food Ministry "particularly criticisably", and that Mogens Jensen had spoken untruthfully to the Folketing. The commission also concluded that that 10 civil servants had committed "official misconduct of such severity that there was a basis for the public authorities to seek to hold them accountable".

Constitutionality
In section 73 of the Danish Constitution (Danish: Grundloven), subsection 1 states: "The right to property is inviolable. No one can be forced to give up their property, except where the public good requires it. This can only be done according to law and against full compensation". In their criticism, legal experts have assessed that there is a "tightened legal requirement" when the government issues an order with such major consequences for property rights.

Another point of criticism that the Mink Commission did not take a position on, was the breach of the so-called journalizing duty (Danish: journaliseringspligten) in connection with the destruction of possible evidence in the form of the deleted text messages.

Knowledge and assumption of responsibility
A central question in the Mink case has been whether the government and Frederiksen in particular knew they were breaking the law when they ordered all mink to be culled, and whether ministers can be held legally responsible. Throughout the process, the government has maintained that this was not done. The Mink Commission was not allowed to assess this.

In the meeting material for the government's K-committee meeting, where the decision was made, two models were proposed:


 * 1) To put the mink industry to sleep. This would mean culling most mink, but allowing the breeding animals to survive, so that the mink industry could recover after the coronavirus pandemic.
 * 2) To close down the profession. That would mean culling all mink and banning mink farming.

It appeared from the appendices that there was most likely no legal authority for any of them. The government said it chose a third model which consisted of a "culling" of all mink, but not a permanent ban on mink breeding. This model was also illegal without new legislation. In its defence, the government has distinguished between the legal difference between killing all mink and shutting down the mink industry. In December 2020, Mette Frederiksen stated i.a. "There is politics, and then there is law. The government has not made a decision to close the mink industry. The government has made a decision that the minks must be killed. These are two different decisions." This distinction has been questioned by several legal experts. Most notably law professor Kristian Lauta and professor of administrative and constitutional law Frederik Waage. The latter commented, "It has the same effect. You could perhaps theoretically imagine that immediately after the minks were killed, you were allowed to pick up some new minks in another country and start breeding them. It's just a very theoretical scenario."

Furthermore, it met with criticism that Barbara Bertelsen had removed the sentence "A total slaughter, including all breeding animals, is assessed to be fatal for the industry" from the meeting documents for the meeting of the government's coordination committee on 3 November.

Mette Frederiksen apologized for the process, but has maintained throughout the case that it was well-founded in terms of health to cull all mink. On 22 September, the law firm Lund Elmer Sandager submitted an assessment specifically on the possible legal liability of the ministers involved, which the Mink Commission was not allowed to do. In the assessment, the law firm concluded that Mogens Jensen and Mette Frederiksen could be found guilty by impeachment, but acquitted other involved ministers. The assessment showed, among other things, "It is our assessment that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen [...] has acted grossly negligently and may incur criminal liability." The assessment was funded by funds raised by the political party Nye Borgerlige, but the law firm as well as the party said that it was completely impartial. Lasse Lund Madsen, Ph.D. and professor at the Department of Law at Aarhus University had brought a similar criticism the month before.

Police involvement
At the press conference on November 4, 2020, Mette Frederiksen stated that in order to support the food authorities' ongoing euthanasia efforts, "an emergency plan for euthanasia is now being implemented, which is handled under the auspices of The National Operative Staff (Danish: Den Nationale Operative Stab) under the command of the police".

After the press conference, mink breeders outside the infection zones were called by employees of the National Police (Danish: Rigspolitiet). To support the conversations with the growers, the cadets were given a so-called action card, which functioned as a script. The text called on the breeders to participate in the culling of their herds, and one of the questions was whether they were willing to do so. If they answered yes to this, the conversation was over. If they answered no, the police officers were instructed to say, "I'm sorry to hear that, but the decision has been made. Failure to cooperate will therefore mean that you will not be able to obtain the bonus, and you can expect the authorities to come and de-crew anyway. I therefore want to know if this makes you change your mind?"

Burial of culled mink
Until November 9, approximately 13.5 million mink were killed in Denmark. Approximately 3 million of those were buried in mass graves. According to the Ministry of Food, the burial of the mink was deemed necessary due to the speed at which all mink were culled. As the animal carcasses started decomposing, gases caused them to expand and push them out of the ground while also risking contaminating drinking water.

On December 2, Food Minister Rasmus Prehn and Environment Minister Lea Wermelin were called to consult on the matter. On December 21, 2020, it was decided that the minks should be excavated. In May 2021 and two months ahead, the exhumation of nearly four million dead mink began at military facilities near Holstebro and Karup. The exhumation was estimated in advance to cost DKr 80 million (US$ million). However, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries requested DKr 150 million (US$ million) to be made available. The excavated mink were taken to 13 different incineration plants around Denmark.

According to Peter Pagh, professor of environmental law at the University of Copenhagen, there was no legal authority to deposit the dead mink in the mass graves. However, in its memorandum of December 15, 2020, the Ministry of Food denied these allegations. The course received criticism from both ends in the Folketinget by, among others, Rasmus Jarlov (K), who called the burial of mink a "tragic story taken on a thin and hasty basis".

In spring of 2021, the Danish Parliament launched a lawyer's investigation into the burial of culled mink. The report of the investigation was published on October 8, 2021. It was concluded that "it will not be possible on the present basis to attribute the mistakes made to individual persons, or that any mistakes by the individual person will have the character of a misconduct".

Financial compensation
When the government's decision was announced, no compensation agreement was ready. Only on January 25, 2021 was an agreement on compensation for the mink breeders adopted in the Folketing. The agreement included a framework of DKr 1.8–2.8 billion (US$– million) in direct compensation for the mink that were euthanized in 2020 without being furred. In addition, DKr 8.9 billion (US$ billion) was given in compensation for loss of future income base and compensation for the residual value of the production apparatus, which no longer had value for the mink breeder. A number of businesses directly dependent on mink breeding – including feed centres, furries, auction houses and transport companies –  were awarded compensation for the loss of the part of their business that concerned the Danish mink industry. It was estimated in the agreement to entail costs of DKr 3–4 billion (US$– million).

The compensation for the individual mink breeding companies was also to depend on assessments made by "a special compensation and assessment commission for handling the mink compensations". In June, assessments had not yet begun. The case processing time was criticized by, among others, chairman of Danske Minkavlere, Tage Pedersen, who stated, "I think it is deeply unreasonable. I knew it would take a long time to expropriate an entire industry, but it is taking far too long. That we look into, that it takes another four to five years, it is completely unreasonable for the 1,000 families who are affected".

It was not until December 18, 2021 that the Ministry of Food announced, after the establishment of six compensation and assessment commissions, that the assessment of the mink companies would begin.

On September 23, 2022, based on SSI's assessment, the government decided to lift the ban on mink breeding from January 1, 2023. However, only 14 farms, corresponding to approximately 1% of the profession, will resume breeding. The rest applied for shutdown compensation. Mink breeders who chose to resume have to comply with infection prevention measures, including testing of mink, use of protective equipment and hygiene measures.

Costs
According to the Ministry of Food, payments to the mink breeders as of September 2, 2022 cost the Danish state DKr 6.6 billion (US$ billion). However, the total cost of payments is expected to be around DKr 20 billion. Only after these are over will the valuation of the nearly 1,100 mink farms in Denmark, in addition to other mink-related companies that are entitled to compensation, begin. Officially, the Danish Food and Food Administration expects that the valuation commissions will be completed in 2024,[143] but the Minister of Food did not not guarantee that all compensation will be paid before 2027.

According to Statistics Denmark, the actual production value of the Danish mink industry was DKr 2.5 billion in 2019.

Criticism of government action
Mette Frederiksen as head of government has been particularly criticized for showing absolute power during the process. In September 2022, Mette Frederiksen stated that, in her opinion, the criticism of her as being powerful can partly be attributed to the fact that she is a woman.

The most important of the points of criticism is that the government ordered all mink in Denmark killed without legal authority and that the government, with its subsequent action, brought the mink breeders into an uncertain legal situation. Based on this and the Ministry of the Environment and Food's report of November 18, 2020,[99] which stated that there was no legal authority to order mink killed outside the infection zones, the Prime Minister has apologized for the process, but maintained that it was well-founded in terms of health kill all mink.

The Liberal Alliance has referred to the case as "the biggest political scandal in Danish history".

The government was criticized for not having sufficient professional background to make the decision, and it has been advocated that professionals other than SSI should have had access to data and trial descriptions, a so-called second opinion.

Criticism of police action
The National Police, and in particular the National Police Chief, Thorkild Fogde, was criticized for carrying out this, was raised after the publication of the Ministry of the Environment and Food's report from November 18, 2020, which concluded that the National Police at the time of drawing up the action card showed that it was illegal. This was also recognized by the National Police itself afterwards. "It was, however, the National Police's clear understanding that the necessary authority would be available within a short time", according to a written reply from the National Police to the Ministry of Justice. The knowledge of the National Police met with criticism from both legal and political sides. Among other things. stated Alex Vanopglagh (LA), "A chief of the National Police, who must ensure that the country's laws are respected and punish those who don't, he puts in a system that you don't respect the country's laws. It's absolutely crazy".

Sanctions
After speaking untruthfully to the Folketing, Food Minister Mogens Jensen found that there was not a majority behind his continued work as minister, and he submitted his resignation on 18 November 2020.

In the Mink Commission's report of June 30, 2022, criticism was directed at Mette Frederiksen and Mogens Jensen. On July 5, they were awarded a noose by the Danish Parliament for their role in the case. Furthermore, it appeared from the report that 10 civil servants had committed "misconduct of such gravity that there are grounds for the public authorities to seek to hold them accountable". At the Prime Minister's press conference on the Mink Commission's report on July 1, 2022, Mette Frederiksen reported that the commission's assessments of civil servants would be reviewed primarily by the Swedish Personnel and Competence Agency.[160] Based on the agency's review, Barbara Bertelsen, head of department in the Prime Minister's Office, was given a warning on August 24, but continued in her position. At the same time, Johan Legarth, head of department in the Ministry of Justice, was given a reprimand, while national police chief Thorkild Fogde and head of department in the Ministry of the Environment, Henrik Studsgaard, were relieved of duty and summoned to official hearings.

The independence of the Swedish Personnel and Competence Agency was disputed by Jørgen Grønnegård Christensen, professor emeritus of political science at Aarhus University, who called the prime minister's statement that the agency was politically independent "somewhat ridiculous". Criticism of the commission's independence was backed up by Eva Smith, professor at the University of Copenhagen's law faculty and honorary doctorate at Lund University, who pointed out that the agency was made up of civil servants "who rank lower in the hierarchy than the people whose responsibility they have to assess".

On September 20, the National Police announced that officials Uffe Stormly and Birgitte Buch had received a warning. According to the Mink Commission, they had contributed to "breach of the duty of truth and the principle of legality in connection with the police's use of action cards on November 6, 2020". On September 22, the Ministry of Food announced that officials Tejs Binderup, Paolo Drostby and Hanne Larsen had also received a warning. On the same day, Anne-Mette Lyhne Jensen was also given a warning in the Ministry of Justice. These decisions were also made on the basis of a review by the Danish Personnel and Skills Agency (Danish: Medarbejder- og Kompetencestyrelsen).

As a political consequence of the Mink Commission's report, the social liberal party announced that if Mette Frederiksen did not call an election by the opening of the Folketing on October 4, 2022 at the latest, the party would overthrow the government by a vote of no confidence.