Death by Fright

Minks are famed for their ravenous appetites, their expensive pelts, their cannibalistic habit of devouring their young when frightened. Last week in Astoria, Ore., William and Emil Urell, operators of a mink farm, appeared before a board of officers from a nearby Coast Guard station, claimed the U. S. Coast Guard owed them $6,750 for damages. Right after the whelping season, they testified, a Coast Guard amphibian plane whizzed over their farm within 150 feet of the ground. The mother minks, terror-stricken by the drumming racket, dashed wildly about the cages, seized their 270 mink kittens, gobbled them up. Attorneys for Messrs. Urell cited two previous court decisions as basis for their claims. Astoria townfolk, who had heard of damage awards granted in Washington and Alaska, were confident that Messrs. Urell would win the argument when hearings open this week.

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