![]() Toward the end of high school, he moved near a number of mink farms, where the animals are raised for fur. When he was nine years old, he bottle-raised a squirrel at age 15, he moved out of his parents’ home and in nearby with his grandfather, who was a famous rodeo cowboy turned show-horse trainer. Carter builds his cages with two layers of wire to prevent a child’s fingers from slipping though, and he has “mink-proofed” his yard with slick fences and buried wire around the perimeter for when he lets them out.Ĭarter grew up training animals. But they are quick and agile, and their prey can include everything from fish and rabbits to birds and muskrats. They have razor-sharp teeth, button eyes and a body shape that calls to mind a chunky squirrel. Photograph: Kim Raff/The New York TimesĪmerican mink are territorial, aggressive predators. Joseph Carter with his mink Boon, on their way to a hunt in West Jordan, Utah. One cage per mink – otherwise they’ll kill each other, Carter says. 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. Out back is where the mink are kept, two dozen of them. Four dogs wander the premises seeking attention. #JORDAN YIN YANG 1 FULL#It is full of life: three daughters, a snake in the basement, a fish tank in the livingroom, ducklings in the sunroom, a rabbit in the girls’ bedroom and a sheep tied to a shed in the yard. The Mink Man’s house sits at the end of a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. “Are you getting this?” Joseph Carter yells back to her. Maggie Carter, running behind her husband, tried to keep the camcorder focused. The mink immediately switched directions – as if it understood – and closed in on its prey. 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. Inside, an animal flicked its head from side to side, swivelling around the small space. “They must be messing with each other, they wouldn’t be coming out like this otherwise,” he says, setting the cage down gently. ![]() Her husband, Joseph Carter – 37 years old, short blond hair, wearing black waders over jeans and a T-shirt – walked over with a GoPro camera strapped to his chest and a cage in his hand. She held a small camcorder and was staring at its monitor, which displayed a tight shot of the larger muskrat. “They’re so cool, like little beavers,” says Maggie Carter, standing on the riverbank. But there they were, two of them, one big and one small, paddling back and forth past each other like furry ships in the afternoon, seemingly unaware they were being filmed. ![]() ![]() It was late in the day for muskrats to be out on Mill Creek, or at least the stretch that runs between a parking lot and a playground near the southern limits of the city. ![]()
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