I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2185
To protect public health and human safety by prohibiting the farming of
mink for their fur, to compensate farmers as they transition out of
the industry, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH18, 2025
Mr. E
SPAILLAT(for himself, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Mr. FROST, and Mr.
F
ITZPATRICK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on the
Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To protect public health and human safety by prohibiting
the farming of mink for their fur, to compensate farmers
as they transition out of the industry, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mink: Vectors for In-4
fection Risk in the United States Act’’ or the ‘‘Mink 5
VIRUS Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON MINK FARMING AND REQUIRE-1
MENTS FOR MINK TERMINATION. 2
(a) C
ESSATION OFOPERATIONS.—Beginning on the 3
date that is 1 year after the date of enactment of this 4
Act, no fur farm may farm mink. 5
(b) P
AINLESSMINKTERMINATIONMETHODS.—Be-6
ginning on the date that is 90 days after the date of enact-7
ment of this Act, any termination of farmed mink, whether 8
performed in order to comply with subsection (a) or other-9
wise, shall be done in a manner that— 10
(1) meets the definition of ‘‘euthanasia’’ speci-11
fied in section 1.1 of title 9, Code of Federal Regu-12
lations (or successor regulations); and 13
(2) is classified as ‘‘acceptable’’ by the most re-14
cent version of the American Veterinary Medical As-15
sociation (AVMA) Guidelines for the Euthanasia of 16
Animals made publicly available at the time the ter-17
mination occurred, without regard to whether the 18
termination is in compliance with other guidelines, 19
including the AVMA Guidelines for the Depopula-20
tion of Animals. 21
(c) P
ENALTIES.— 22
(1) P
ENALTY FOR FAILURE TO CEASE OPER -23
ATIONS.—Any person who violates subsection (a) 24
may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for 25
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each day that the fur farm is not in compliance with 1
the requirements of that subsection. 2
(2) P
ENALTY FOR NONCOMPLIANT TERMI -3
NATION OF MINK.—Any person who violates sub-4
section (b) may be assessed a civil penalty of up to 5
$10,000 for each mink terminated in a manner that 6
does not comply with the requirements of that sub-7
section. 8
(d) E
FFECT ONPREEMPTION.—This section shall 9
not be construed to preempt or limit any requirement of 10
any law or regulation of a State or political subdivision 11
of a State that is more restrictive than the requirements 12
of this section. 13
SEC. 3. PAYMENT PROGRAM. 14
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 15
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agri-16
culture (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) 17
shall establish and carry out a program (referred to in 18
this section as the ‘‘Program’’) to provide payments to 19
owners of fur farms whose operations involve the farming 20
of mink. 21
(b) P
AYMENTS.—Under the Program, the Secretary 22
shall provide payments to fur farm owners equal to the 23
sum of the Secretary’s determination of— 24
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(1) the reasonable cost incurred by the owner in 1
order to comply with sections 2(a) and 2(b); and 2
(2) the market value of the portion of the own-3
er’s fur farm, exclusive of the land, involving mink 4
farming. 5
(c) M
ARKETVALUEDETERMINATION.— 6
(1) M
ARKET VALUE.—The market value re-7
ferred to in subsection (b)(2) shall be calculated as 8
the amount in cash, or on terms reasonably equiva-9
lent to cash, for which in all probability the relevant 10
portion of the fur farm would have sold on the effec-11
tive date of the valuation, after a reasonable expo-12
sure time on the competitive market, from a willing 13
and reasonably knowledgeable seller to a willing and 14
reasonably knowledgeable buyer, with neither acting 15
under any compulsion to buy or sell, giving due con-16
sideration to all available economic uses of that por-17
tion of the fur farm at the time of the valuation. 18
(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE OF VALUATION .—In de-19
termining the market value referred to in subsection 20
(b)(2), the effective date of the valuation shall be the 21
day before the date of enactment of this Act. 22
(d) G
RANTCONDITION.—As a condition of receiving 23
a payment under the Program, the recipient shall— 24
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(1) not use any payment funds for any mate-1
rials, supplies, labor costs, or activities associated 2
with operating a fur farm; and 3
(2) provide to the Secretary a permanent ease-4
ment on the property on which the fur farm is lo-5
cated that prohibits the operation of any fur farm on 6
the easement area. 7
(e) F
UNDING.—Not later than 60 days after the date 8
of enactment of this Act, out of any funds in the Treasury 9
not otherwise appropriated, the Secretary of the Treasury 10
shall transfer to the Secretary of Agriculture 11
$100,000,000 to carry out this section, to remain available 12
until expended. 13
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 14
In this Act: 15
(1) F
UR.—The term ‘‘fur’’ means any animal 16
skin or part of an animal skin with hair, fleece, or 17
fur fibers attached, either in its raw or processed 18
state. Such term— 19
(A) does not include animal skins that will 20
be converted into leather or which in processing 21
will have their hair, fleece, or fur fiber com-22
pletely removed; and 23
(B) does not include cowhide with its hair 24
attached, deerskin with its hair attached, and 25
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lambskin and sheepskin with their fleece at-1
tached. 2
(2) F
UR-BEARING ANIMAL.—The term ‘‘fur- 3
bearing animal’’ means an animal that bears fur of 4
marketable value. 5
(3) F
UR FARM.—The term ‘‘fur farm’’ means 6
an operation that farms fur-bearing animals for the 7
value of their fur, including— 8
(A) the land, buildings, support facilities, 9
and other equipment of the operation in which 10
fur-bearing animals are, for the value of their 11
fur, bred, slaughtered, skinned, or sold; and 12
(B) the fur-bearing animals of the oper-13
ation farmed for the value of their fur and any 14
fur produced by such fur-bearing animals that 15
is owned by the operation. 16
(4) M
INK.—The term ‘‘mink’’ means an Amer-17
ican mink (Neovison vison), a European mink 18
(Mustela lutreola), and any mink hybrid, whether 19
alive or dead, and any parts and products from such 20
mink or mink hybrids. 21
(5) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 22
the several States, the District of Columbia, the 23
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth 24
of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, 25
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Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and any 1
other territory or possession of the United States. 2
SEC. 5. BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 3
(a) S
TATUTORYPAYGO SCORECARDS.—The budg-4
etary effects of this Act shall not be entered on either 5
PAYGO scorecard maintained pursuant to section 4(d) of 6
the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (Public Law 7
111–139; 2 U.S.C. 933(d)). 8
(b) S
ENATEPAYGO SCORECARDS.—The budgetary 9
effects of this Act shall not be entered on any PAYGO 10
scorecard maintained for the purposes of section 4106 of 11
H. Con. Res. 71 (115th Congress). 12
Æ
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