(9/17/98)
ONNELEY, England (AP) -- Animal rights activists hacked open cages and freed almost 8,000 minks at a breeding farm early today, the second such attack in Britain in as many months.
Police warned residents to be on the alert today after the animals, bred for their pelts, were let out of their cages just before dawn from the farm in Onneley, Staffordshire, 250 miles northwest of London.
Sky TV reported that the Animal Liberation Front, an extremist group linked to past acts of violence, had claimed responsibility.
At the Onneley farm, 3,500 cages were hacked open, possibly with bolt-cutters, said owner Len Kelsall.
Nearly all the animals on the property were freed, but most stayed contained on the farm compound. Police said 2,000 had escaped into the countryside.
``This is not animal rights, this is animal cruelty,'' Kelsall said, standing beside a shopping cart full of mink carcasses recovered from roads and fields.
``Dead mink run over, fighting, being shot -- it is absolutely horrendous,'' added Kelsall, who supplies the Russian fur market.
Police warned local residents to keep doors and windows closed because the minks will attack pets, and said motorists should avoid the area.
Press Association, the British news agency, reported sounds of shots -- apparently neighboring farmers shooting at the minks, which destroy crops and attack other animals.
In August, supporters of The Animal Liberation Front smashed cages and cut wire at a fur farm near Ringwood, 100 miles southwest of London, freeing 2,000 minks. Many were later recaptured.
Earlier this month, thousands of minks were set free from a farm near Helsinki, Finland. Many of them were hit by cars or killed each other, authorities said.
``They're violent little creatures," Kelsall said, referring to both the minks and the Animal Liberation Front.