Goose-killing mink blamed for wrecking family farm

Judy Pike says the security and serenity of life in the tinyBonavistaBaycommunity ofPortland is being taken away by an invasion of bold and hungry mink.

She blames marauding minks for killing a goose that was adored by her disabled son, 20-year-old Nicholas, and other domesticated fowl on her property.

She has killed 10 of the animals on her property over the last two weeks, and says the roadways are often littered with their carcasses as motorists accidentallystrike the carnivorous mammals with their vehicles.

"Everyday life is a struggle here, and now I've got to be out in the garden all day long trying to protect my birds. I can't go on through the fall like this,"Pike told the St. John's Morning Show during an interview Monday.

Frayed nerves

Pike and others believes the animals are escapees from a fur farm located not far fromPortland, acommunity of less than 100 residents about36 kilometres north of Clarenville.

She said they began showing up in large number this past spring.

"The mink are everywhere. They're in large amounts.They're large in size. Large amounts in the community. It's not normal. It never was like it before," she said.

Pike said her nerves have been frayed for many weeks, and the tipping point came recently when Clara the goose was killed.

Despite her best efforts to construct a mink-proof pen, she was recently shocked by the sight of a mink eating the large bird.

"It was very, very upsetting and I cannot get over it and adjust to it and accept the death of that goose," Pike said, adding that Clara lived outside on their property for more than six years.

Some large predators

Pike has about 50 animals, and every one of them has a name.She said the animals are her son's passion, and about two years ago, the Children's Wish Foundation granted Nicholas's wish of having a barn.

Nicholas put his feelings about Clara's deathin writing, saying "every day I miss her more and more. She was the one animal I could talk to, and she talked back to me almost as if we could understand each other."

Pike has killed mink with a shovel and "by other means," and said the animal that killed Clara was extraordinarily large.

She keeps a minktrap on her property and said it was too large to fit inside the cage.

"After it was dead, I took it and I laid it on top of the trap, and I took a picture, and it was longer than what the trap is. I'd say it was 23, 24 inches," she said.

Attempts to contact a representative of the nearby fur farm have so farbeen unsuccessful.