Officials investigating release of 6,000 mink from west Kaysville farm

FBI agents are assisting Davis County Sheriff's deputies in an investigation of the release of about 6,000 mink early Sunday morning from a farm in west Kaysville.

Davis County Sheriff Lt. Brad Wilcox said police received a call about 1 a.m. Sunday morning reporting the freed animals. The mink had spread throughout the area, but were mostly recovered by 3 p.m. Sunday.

Wilcox said animal control officers were responding to a few calls from residents of mink "spottings." One person in the area was bit as they tried to corral one of the animals, but received only minor injuries.

FBI spokesman Juan Becerra said agents from the Salt Lake office were still at the scene, gathering evidence and determining the full extent of damages at the farm. Becerra said it was too early to say whether the incident could be connected with another mink release at a South Jordan farm in late August.

An Internet posting from the press office of the activist group Animal Liberation Front indicated that a "local soldier out of Utah" was claiming responsibility for the August incident, as well as destruction of the farm's breeding records.