Intruders break into mink farm, release about 1,500

FRANKLIN, Idaho — Just to the north of the Utah-Idaho border, the Hobbs family said what appears to be a group of people broke into their mink farm, releasing about 1,500 of the animals into the wild very early Saturday morning.

"We've only got footage on one person. I'm assuming it was more than one," Jeff Hobbs said. "They had opened the pens on six of the eight rows and were working on the last two."

Hobbs said before Franklin County deputies were able to respond and close off the roadway, several of the mink were run over and killed. Dozens more later died from starvation, dehydration and stress. He added that the mink are especially susceptible to the warm fall weather seen over the weekend.

"It's like you being wrapped up in a wool coat and laying you out in the sun," Hobbs explained. "As good as they think the intentions may be, it's like you being dumped off somewhere. You don't know where water is. You don't know where food is. Well ... the mink don't either."

As of Monday evening, no arrests had been made, though one group had claimed responsibility for the act as a form of protest for animal rights.

"It's OK for people to have different views. It's not okay for people to impose their views on you," Hobbs said.

Hobbs said about a hundred people from the community around Franklin showed up to support his family, working through the weekend to help them recover about 90 percent of the animals. Hobbs said many of them are still recovering from the heat, lack of nutrition and the stress. Meanwhile, he's concerned for the danger that those still free could pose to small pets and farm animals.

"Somebody raising some chickens in their backyard or having kittens or small dogs or rabbits or ducks, those are all foods that those mink could go after," he said.

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