Owner of Local Mink Fur Farm Exposed in New Cruelty Investigation

For Immediate Release:
May 22, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

The Van Ansem Group—which owns the Medford-based A&M Dittrich Mink Farm, one of the largest mink farms in the U.S.—has been exposed for egregious cruelty in an undercover investigation conducted by Polish animal rights group Otwarte Klatki (“Open Cages”).

In video footage obtained by PETA, workers beat screaming minks with their hands and with clubs and bashed the animals, many of whom were bleeding heavily, against metal and wooden parts of their enclosures. Workers carried the minks by their tails, sometimes twisting them, before hurling the animals into filthy cages stacked on top of each other or into transport carts. The minks who survive are destined to be violently killed. Despite this, the company claims on its website to provide the “best possible care” for animals on its farms.

Images from the investigation. Credit: Otwarte Klatki/Anima International

PETA notes that animals on fur factory farms spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy wire cages before they or the young they bear are electrocuted, gassed, decapitated, or beaten to death. Each year, approximately 100 million animals are killed for their fur.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.