Setting the record straight on Viking Furs mink ranch

[Animal 0]

"I don't know where that number came from, but there are 75,000 mink at
our ranch," he says. "We have a permit for 15,000 breeders and each
female has about four to five kittens a year. After they are bred the
males are destroyed."
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Last updated at 11:12 AM on 17/09/09

Setting the record straight on Viking Furs mink ranch

BY DENISE PIKE
The Compass






HARD LOOK - This mink at Viking Furs Inc. in Cavendish, Newfoundland & Labrador gives mink rancher Peter Noer a curious glare. The company houses 75,000 mink and employees 15 to 20 full-time and 30 part-time workers. (Photo: The Compass)




"The less lies you have to tell, the happier you are," says Peter Noer, co-owner of Viking Furs Inc. in Cavendish (Newfoundland & Labrador).
"To me this isn't just a motto, it's something I believe in and that same motto applies to what we are doing here on the mink ranch. There are no secrets here. We're not hiding anything such as a nuclear reactor, or doing anything that will hurt the public. Anyone and everyone is welcome to knock on our door and tour the facility at anytime."
For the past few years Viking Furs, owned by Noer and Erick Dalsager of Denmark, has been the cause of a smelly situation in Heart's Delight-Islington. A few months ago when the farm was designated as a composting site for chicken offal, the mink crap hit the fan—literally. The smell and flies stemming from the mink ranch resulted in numerous phone calls to the department of Environment and Conservation and the compost site was shut down.
On Aug. 12 about 200 angry residents voiced their concerns to Environment Minister Charlene Johnson, who is also the MHA for Trinity Bay de Verde, during a public meeting in the town.

SMELL AND COMPOST GONE

Last Wednesday, Sept. 9 Noer, who had declined interviews with The Compass in the past, finally agreed to an interview and tour of the facility.
"We're not out to hurt anyone and we do understand some of the concerns some of the residents have, especially about the smell that was taking place during the time we were composting, but that has stopped," says Noer. "That smell has since gone away and things are much better."
Apparently residents agree.
Days before, residents from Heart's Delight-Islington told The Compass the smell from the ranch had died down and the situation had improved greatly. However some residents feared Viking Furs would start composting again in the future.
Noer assures them that will not happen.
"We will not be composting chicken offal again," he says. "That issue is done, cancelled and gone!"
However the ranch will continue to compost mink manure, just as we (it has) have in the past.
"Everything is recycled here on the farm," continues Noer. "The mink fur is processed and the guts and feces are mixed with chaff and composted here at the ranch and then spread out over the ground to help the grass grow. We plan to cut the grass/hay and use it as bedding for the mink."

RUMOURS DISPELLED

Over the past few months the land across from Viking Furs has been cleared, and ditching and upgrading carried out on Fox Farm Road. The work caused the rumour mill to swirl and many residents are wondering if the business plans to expand.
Noer wants to set the record straight on that issue as well.
"Whatever is going on with Fox Farm Road has nothing at all to do with Viking Furs," he says. "That is a false rumour and as for the land across the road.... well that's our land, we own it, so to be honest we can do whatever we damn well want with it and it is no one's business! Nevertheless that land is being cleared for grassland to grow hay that will be used as bedding for mink. Right now we are using shaving/chaff, but the availability of that material in the future may be limited, so we are just looking ahead to make sure we have something to replace that."
Noer says his company applied to government to turn the land into a compost site, but those plans have since changed.
"We wouldn't go with that now because there has been too much negative media coverage and too much opposition from the area," he says. "It's not worth the headache and even if we did still want to expand, that plan would have to go through the Environmental Assessment Act and I'm quite sure it wouldn't be approved now."
Noer also wants to correct the rumour that Viking Furs Inc. is housing about 140,000 mink.
"I don't know where that number came from, but there are 75,000 mink at our ranch," he says. "We have a permit for 15,000 breeders and each female has about four to five kittens a year. After they are bred the males are destroyed. We do that to ensure that there's no cross breeding."

TOUR AND INSPECTIONS

On the day of the interview Noer gave The Compass a tour of the cold storage, processing plant, barns and compost site, located on a field adjacent to the ranch. Very few flies could be seen and the smell was at a minimum.
"Sometimes it is worse than this," Noer admits. "If it is a hot day or if the wind is blowing in a certain direction and it's on the same day that we are hauling manure then yes the smell is a bit worse, but no worse than any other farm where a lot of animals are being housed."
Noer says he was advised not to show The Compass where they compost the mink manure, but he has nothing to hide.
"I just don't get it," he says. "We are being treated as if we are housing toxic waste here and letting it go out into the ground and swimming holes and wells to hurt children and their parents. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact what we are doing here goes hand in hand with every environmental recommendation to reduce, reuse, recycle. Every part of a mink is utilized in some manner. What isn't sold goes back into the ground."
Every Friday government officials inspect the ranch.
"We compost mink manure by the book and we have a lot of regulations we have to comply to," he says. " Every rule and regulation government has in place we are following. I'm not sure people realize that."

SMELL NO WORSE

Noer compares the smell from the mink ranch to other businesses in the province and across Canada that are farming or processing animals.
"If you drive by a dairy farm in The Goulds, the smell is bad sometimes and if you live close to a fish plant then the smell is also bad, but you do not try to shut down the farm or the fish plant do you? I mean it would be crazy to put many people out of work like that wouldn't it? This is a mink ranch and there are a lot of animals here and they crap a lot, so there's always going to be a smell, but we want and are willing to do what we can to minimize it. It isn't our intention to make life hard for anyone and we're willing to work with the people and town council to find a solution. When we were composting the odour was really bad, but the day to day smells are no worse than any other farm where livestock are kept." —The Compass


http://atlanticfarmfocus.ca/index.cfm?sid=287130&sc=593