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Mink in Sheffield

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21 minutes ago, makapaka said:

Why?

Why not. And it wouldn't stop there, they'll munch through ducks and other waterfowl. And, in Europe, push out European mink, which is now endangered.

 

Now if you just want a countryside dominated by mink, wood pigeon, rats and just species resistant to those then fair enough. I don't subscribe to that - biodiversity is a good thing, and worth protecting, in more ways than i understand. American mink are a dangerous mistake of our own making, we are trying to put it right. Put it this way (can't claim this analogy, but its a good one) but if we tipped thousands of gallons of bleach in the river Don  we'd try and correct it.

 

This isn't a cheap shot, but are you trying to compare animals to humans - ie they're all equal?

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16 hours ago, makapaka said:

Why?

Are you just trying to wind people up on this thread ?

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Guest makapaka
19 minutes ago, mickey finn said:

Are you just trying to wind people up on this thread ?

No the question I’m asking  is why someone values a mink’s life less than a water vole - for example.

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Guest makapaka
On 17/02/2020 at 16:55, makapaka said:

No the question I’m asking  is why someone values a mink’s life less than a water vole - for example.

The mink does - cos it eats it to survive.

 

we don’t have to interfere at all?

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2 hours ago, makapaka said:

The mink does - cos it eats it to survive.

 

we don’t have to interfere at all?

We do, or they’ll eat through other species - mink don’t have any natural predators in this country, what with them not being naturally from here.

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1 hour ago, tinfoilhat said:

We do, or they’ll eat through other species - mink don’t have any natural predators in this country, what with them not being naturally from here.

correct

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Guest makapaka
14 hours ago, MICK BADGER said:

correct

We have been killing off water vole for a century - why don't we change our own actions to protect water voles - rather than killing mink?

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27 minutes ago, makapaka said:

We have been killing off water vole for a century - why don't we change our own actions to protect water voles - rather than killing mink?

We are, and by killing mink we are reacting to "our" actions by releasing them in the first place.

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Guest makapaka
5 hours ago, tinfoilhat said:

We are, and by killing mink we are reacting to "our" actions by releasing them in the first place.

So we set off killing  voles over the course of half a century.

 

then we introduce mink.

 

The mink also kill voles.

 

So we kill the mink and continue killing off the vole albeit possibly more slowly.

 

why is this ok? 

Edited by makapaka

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46 minutes ago, makapaka said:

So we set off killing  voles over the course of half a century.

 

then we introduce mink.

 

The mink also kill voles.

 

So we kill the mink and continue killing off the vole albeit possibly more slowly.

 

why is this ok? 

It's better than the alternative, as I've said it isn't just water voles. If we keep destroying habitat, it will only magnify the damage mink do.

 

Bigger question, why isn't ok? Are just looking for a number of animals and don't care what they are or what? I'm struggling to see where you are going with this.

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Guest makapaka
5 minutes ago, tinfoilhat said:

It's better than the alternative, as I've said it isn't just water voles. If we keep destroying habitat, it will only magnify the damage mink do.

 

Bigger question, why isn't ok? Are just looking for a number of animals and don't care what they are or what? I'm struggling to see where you are going with this.

Why don’t we look at alternative options?

 

why is the go to decision one that ultimately involves the killing of more animals?

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13 minutes ago, makapaka said:

Why don’t we look at alternative options?

 

why is the go to decision one that ultimately involves the killing of more animals?

Mink were quite specifically brought here to be killed. It is quite literally the only reason they were brought to this country, to make coats. And maybe hats.

 

Now, I suppose if you were so inclined you could start a charity where you could humanely trap them, package them up and send them back to the good old US of A. Or make a park, a very secure park for them somewhere. They are options. There aren't many others.

 

Take grey squirrels. Zero in 1850, 2.5 million now. Red squirrels - here for about 10,000 years currently  140,000 and dropping. If we'd shot a few grey squirrels 80 years ago we'd have alot more red squirrels.

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