After illegally ordering the cull of the country’s 17 million mink to prevent the spread of COVID-19, lawmakers now say they want to exhume their mass graves and incinerate them over concerns that they could contaminate nearby waters, while veterinary officials warn that mink escaping from farms could establish a permanent COVID-19 reservoir in the country’s wild animals that could allow the virus to re-enter humans and precipitate future pandemics.
