Letter to the editor: Casey's mink vote appalling

I am a concerned Pennsylvania citizen, and I am appalled that Sen. Bob Casey voted to keep alive the United States’ cruel and virally dangerous mink farms. But, unfortunately, he was one of a small number of Democrats backing this form of factory farming of wild animals for their fur.

Message to Casey: Fur coats are out of fashion. We don’t need them in Pennsylvania, and nobody else does either. No major clothing retailers or designers work with or sell fur any longer. That’s why the remaining 60 mink farms in the U.S. ship their pelts to China. The highly territorial, aggressive animals are known to cannibalize one another in their tight quarters.

What is most startling is the disease threat that captive mink in fur factories poses. Mink have been reported as spreading covid-19 to humans in Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and possibly even the United States. The U.S. then exports the pelts, and China’s government outsources the viral risks to the United States.

This vote is reprehensible, Senator Casey. Your disrespect for animal welfare is deeply disappointing.

“The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.” (Proverbs 12:10)

Matthew A. King

Baldwin

The writer is president of the Christian Animal Rights Association.