Mink are not domesticated; are not now, nor ever been domesticated.  That is
not to say they might not someday become domesticated, but not at this point
in time.  To become domesticated, there are a series of criteria to be met,
including skull or other skeletal changes, dependence on humans for food
and/or reproduction, changes in physiological systems, behaviorial changes,
and a change in the external appearence of the animal which renders it
easily distinquishable from its wild kin.  As far as I know, the only
significant difference between a wild mink and a ranch mink is color of the
coat in some ranch mink.
 
The mink raised by ranchers will readily revert to a wild state (assuming
they were somewhat tamed to begin with, which is extremely unlikely) and
interact in their environment much like native mink.  Many of these mink
have been raised in captivity for several generations; the changes in coat
color are often caused by recessive mutations in one or more alleles, and
require selective breeding to maintain the colors.  Recessive colors are
initially maintained through familial inbreeding, which may or may not
effect other biological systems.  There is a major differences between
domesticated animals and captive-raised animals; captive-raised animals are
wild (although sometimes tamed) animals that are biologically identical to
the non-captive members of their species that are still living in the wild.
Domestic animals have no "wild" species counterpart.  Mink are captive
raised, as are foxes and other fur-bearing animals raised in a ranching
environment.
 
The problem with the release of the thousands of mink is that they have been
doomed to death by starvation and/or disease.  Carnivores are limited by the
food supply; certainly there are wild mink in the area already living off
the land; they are probably in a state of equilibrium with the local prey
species.  The introduction of thousands of mink into the local ecosystem
will be catastrophic to the local prey animals, which will likely be wiped
out, the the local mink, which will lose their food source for the winter,
and to the ranch mink, many of which will not know how to properly hunt and
starve, and others which will starve simply because the local food suppy
will simply not support them all.  This will also impact the other small
predators in the area, including weasels, birds of prey, bobcats/lynx, and
fox; all of which depend on small animals to make it through the winter.
The mink having coats of the "wrong" color will not be successful at
capturing prey nor escaping predators; they will die.  You might as well
have dumped toxic waste into the local water supply for all the good that
was done.  The attempt to save five thousand mink could ultimately cause the
death of ten thousand or more innocent animal "by-standers," as well as the
mink themselves.  So much for animal rights....
 
An easy way to understand this predator-prey relationship is the following.
You have to go somewhere, and so lock your five fuzzies in a bedroom with
enough food for two weeks (assume unlimited water and cat litter).  Unknown
to you, someone sneaks into your house, and puts 100 more ferrets in the
room.  What will happen?
 
I am certainly not supporting mink ranching; it is a vile practice for
egotistical reasons.  It is a crime against morality, but at least the local
species is not hunted to extinction.  But releasing thousands of carnivores
into a limited region is a crime against nature.  I think most of the ranch
mink will be easily caught once they get hungry, which in a cold climate
will happen all too soon.  I am not going to argue that a fast death after a
season of life is better or worse than a slow death from starvation or
disease in less than a season of life; both are unnecessary.  This is a
needless tragedy brought on by unthinking people.
 
Regardless of what the rancher said, mink have not been domesticated; they
are only captive bred.  Ferrets, on the other hand, are domesticated, and
have been for several thousand years.
 
I get out of the hospital tomorrow! Good pun BIG; it took real *guts* to
make a pun so hard to *swallow*!
[Moderator's note: You're really scraping the bowels of the earth to come
up with this material, aren't you? BIG]
 
The rest of Bob
Moose, Stella, Daye, Tori, and Bear.
Moose says, "Why are ferrets like snow?  They both nip your toes..."
 
PS: This was typed in by the SO, so blame her for any goofs, mispellings, or
other mistakes.
 
(They will think I'm a saint--Ann)
[Posted in FML issue 1381]