New Report Indicates ALF Shut Down Illinois Mink Farm

Posted by Peter Young | 2 comments

New information shows Illinois fur farm shut down one month after a 1997 ALF raid.

Part six in a thirty-article series this month on the ALF’s fur farm campaign.

The site Coalition Against Fur Farms is reporting that a mink farm closed down one month after the release of 3,500 mink by the Animal Liberation Front. This is the first time this has been reported, and the timing strongly indicates the ALF effectively shut down this farm.

The original source was fur trade publication Sandy Parker Reports, which reported that Charles K. Ide (Downers Grove, IL) died in October, and “…he pelted out in 1997 and retired.”

“Pelted out” refers to the killing every animal on a farm and shutting it down.

 

Many ALF-targeted farms have shut down. However in the majority of these cases, there is no evidence that the Animal Liberation Front played a direct role in the closure.

However the Charles Ide farm closure is interesting in that it closed the month after a large ALF raid (3,5000 mink released). The timing is fairly strong evidence that the ALF shut down this fur farm. If accurate, this is further evidence of how fragile individual mink operations are, and how susceptible they are to going out of business from a single ALF action.

New resource on fur farm intel

I took this report from the new(ish) Coalition Against Fur Farms site, that has become the authoritative resource on tracking the fur industry. This site has left the fur industry scratching it’s head as to where they’ve gotten so much info, as seen in this security memo sent out by the Fur Commission over the summer.

Coalition Against Fur Farms re-launched earlier this year, with a new mission statement that lays out their goals: Mapping the fur industry, identifying weak links, tracking changes in fur farming (closed farms, etc), and broadcasting documents from whistleblowers.

2010 report from anonymous tipster

In 2010, I reported on a message from an anonymous tipster, who gave a self-guided tour of the Charles Ide fur farm and found it to be closed. The fur farm is now a Christmas tree farm, allowing the investigator to wander the property freely while “Christmas tree shopping.” View more photos of the closed farm here.

Very little follow up is done on past ALF targets, to give a better sense of the long-term effects these actions have. As information has come to me, I have posted updates on several past Animal Liberation Front targets that have been confirmed closed.

The farm in question is:

Ides Mink Farm, Downers Grove, IL

Date of action: September 1st, 1997

Animals released: 3,500 mink

This is the sixth of 30 articles I will be posting in December on the ALF’s fur farm campaign. Sign up for the email list to get every update sent to your inbox, or check back daily.

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