CULLED CRITTERS

The Mink Denmark Killed to Stop Mutant COVID-19 Are Now Rising From Their Graves

Gas from decomposition is causing the corpses to expand and pushing them to the surface.

Mink are rising from mass graves in Denmark. The Scandinavian nation, the world’s largest producer of fur, has so far culled more than 10 million mink to prevent the spread of a COVID-19 mutation unique to the luxuriously pelted mammals. As animal control authorities in West Jutland bury them by the thousands as quickly as possible in graves just three feet deep, they have encountered a macabre phenomenon: some of the corpses keep coming back to the surface. “As the bodies decay, gases can be formed,” Thomas Kristensen, a national police spokesman, was quoted saying in local media. “This causes the whole thing to expand a little. In this way, in the worst cases, the mink get pushed out of the ground.” Danish authorities concluded the threat to humans from the new mink-related strain of the coronavirus has now “very likely been extinguished,” and they plan to bury the animals in graves six feet deep going forward.