Denmark burns coronavirus infected zombie mink for electricity
Denmark began burning the corpses of millions of coronavirus ridden ‘zombie mink’ to make electricity on Thursday.
17 million of the farmed critters were culled to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in November last year after 12 people were infected by a mutated strain, which passed from humans to mink and back to humans.
The bodies were tipped into trenches and buried in two metres of soil but, in a gruesome twist that saw them dubbed 'zombie mink', hundreds began resurfacing as gas from their decomposition pushed them out of their mass graves.
30 tonnes of the exhumed, rotting beasts were shovelled into the furnaces at the Måbjergværket waste incinerator in Holstebro on Thursday. The animals were mixed with the household waste that is usually burnt for energy at the plant.
“It smells of household waste, as usual,” said Niels Ulrik Nielsen, the chairman of the plant.
A further 30 tonnes from a six month old mass grave of two million mink will arrive on Friday at the incinerator for test cremations in stoves that reach temperatures of 1,100 degrees.
If tests are successful, Måbjergværket could buy 1,000 tonnes of zombie mink for its in 13 incinerators around Denmark. It is hoped all the zombie mink, which were farmed for fur, could be dug up and burnt by mid-July.
“We did not know in advance what problems the mink would cause but they are part of the operation now here. They must become heat for Mr. and Mrs. Jensen and electricity for the grid”, Mr Nielsen told Danish media.
Jes Simonsen, a crane driver at the plant for the last 13 years, told local TV, “It is always exciting when something new happens. I do not fear it.”
He added that household waste often included bones and dead animals and that the principle was the same with the gruesome arrival of thousands of decomposing mink.
Residents close to the mink mass graves, which are guarded to keep scavenging animals and people away, are concerned about the health risks from the apparently undead animals.
Food and Agriculture Minister Morgens Jensen was forced to resign in November after it emerged the culling order was illegal. His replacement supported the plan to burn the corpses for electricity.
