Muskrats, rats, raccoons, beavers, groundhogs — if your problem is big enough, and wild enough, the Utah-based Mink Man might take care of it at no cost.
Joseph Carter is among the country’s more unconventional midsize-pest control specialists, with 1.3 million followers.
“They must be messing with each other, they wouldn’t be coming out like this otherwise,” he said, setting the cage down gently. Inside, an animal flicked its head from side to side, swiveling around the small space. It was an American mink, named Boon. Joseph Carter, who was now opening the door to the cage, is among the country’s more unconventional midsize-pest control specialists, known to his 1.3 million YouTube followers as the Mink Man.
Out back is where the mink are kept, two dozen of them. They live in large cages, lined up side-by-side, with deep buckets of water for swimming and long tree limbs along the sides of the enclosures for climbing. One cage per mink — otherwise they’ll kill each other, Carter said. In 2014, after a decade of trial and error, Joseph Carter self-published a 242-page book, “The New Sport of Minkenry: The Art of Taming, Training, and Hunting with One of Nature’s Most Intense Predators.” Invoking his experience with falconry, he detailed a number of techniques to control and care for mink — how much to feed them; how to get them to listen to you; how to teach them to cache, or bring back their prey.
She stumbled across one of the Mink Man’s videos on YouTube and sent it to her lab group. Carter was teaching one of his mink, Missy, to cache, using the magic bullet of mink training: a string tied around a dead animal. He ran around his backyard bouncing a dead pigeon a few feet above the ground, and Missy gave chase, springing into the air until she had sunk her teeth into the bird and dragged it back to the cage.
The minkenry book did not sell well when it was released, but that didn’t bother Joseph Carter. He was working as a financial adviser at the time, and his YouTube account, which he started in 2008 to document his mink, was steadily growing. Around 2017, shortly after the birth of his first daughter, he and his wife decided he would quit his job and start working full time as the Mink Man.
To Carter, the hunting, while popular among viewers, is also for the mink. He buys many of his animals from fur farms, which, in the United States, typically produce a few million pelts a year and have been a source of controversy among animal rights supporters. More recently, they drew attention when mink began contracting COVID-19; in Denmark, in 2020, 17 million farm mink were culled out of fear of spreading the disease.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Titans Season 4: Joseph Morgan Shares More From Sebastian's JournalICYMI: As he nears wrapping filming on the fourth season of HBOMax's DCTitans, JosephMorgan offers new looks at SebastianSanger's (aka BrotherBlood) journal and more. / Titans DCU JosephMorgan DCTitans
Read more »
The Hills' Kaitlynn Carter and Kristopher Brock's Son Rowan's Baby Album‘The Hills’ star Kaitlynn Carter and boyfriend Kristopher Brock welcomed their first child together in September 2021 — see baby photos
Read more »
How Val Kilmer Reacted to Seeing Top Gun 2 Iceman Scene for First TimeTopGunMaverick director Joseph Kosinski recalls showing Val Kilmer his pivotal Iceman scene for the first time, which made the director nervous: 'But his response was beautiful.'
Read more »
Aussie Teen Held in U.S. Prison for 10 Days After Traveling for Job InterviewCameron Carter was unable to contact his family during the ordeal, which was extended after immigration officials misinterpreted his stress as an attempt to resist deportation.
Read more »