Raiders set free minks on Spanish fur farms

MADRID - Night-time raiders freed more than 17,000 minks on fur farms in northern Spain, police said today.

Police suspect the raiders were animal rights activists or rival breeders.

In carefully planned raids, they simultaneously broke into farms in three regions of Galicia, northwest Spain, which is a centre of mink production for the fur trade.

The biggest release was at a farm in the Oza dos Rios area, where around 11,000 of the weasel-like creatures were let loose and half made it out of the compound, a police spokeswoman said.

The raiders tore down doors and used them as ramps to allow the carnivorous, semi-aquatic minks to escape over the farm's perimeter fence, owner Charo Carillo told reporters.

- REUTERS