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SLIDESHOW: Morgan fur farming protest
MORGAN -- Animal rights activists marched, banged their homemade drums and verbally clashed with mink farmers as part of a protest Saturday.
"God hates fur" and "We love farmers" were slogans written on competing placards that faced each other in downtown Morgan as deputies trailed protestors from one farm to the next.
"Our mission is to end fur," said Colleen Hatfield, an Ogden native who helped organize the march.
Hatfield is a member of a group called the Salt Lake Animal Advocacy Movement (SLAAM,) an animal rights organization that objects to harvesting mink furs for profit.
Morgan authorities originally had tried to put restrictions on the march and the protest locations.
But a judge settled their differences and the protest started about noon near the Dawson family fur farm.
"They are young, they don't know what they are doing," said Seth Dawson as he watched more than 30 protestors chant in front of his daughter's home.
The tension picked up quickly as both sides shouted out their point of view.
"1-2-3-4, this is a fur war!" chanted SLAAM members and others who eventually walked on, passing city hall, then stopping at another farm down the road.
"You are ignorant!" retorted a farm supporter passing by the crowd.
Morgan County Sheriff Gene Ercanbrack, wearing a black hat and black tie, said fur protests are rare in this part of Utah, and he hadn't seen one since coming into office in 1999.
Weber County Sheriff deputies assisted with crowd control.
Among the protestors was a Salt Lake City man who said he had been jailed in another state for releasing mink from a private farm.
But Morgan resident Jenny MacArthur said she'd already seen a mink or two on the loose in her day as the mink escaped on their own from a nearby farm and ended up wandering in her yard.
"I'm just here for the entertainment value," said MacArthur as her children stood with her, watching the protest unfold across the street.
Several hours after it started, the SLAAM group ended up walking to their last location where they faced an equal-sized group of farm supporters.
They stood there for hours, a road and a philosophy between them.
Along the way, there had been some body-bumping between groups and heated verbal exchanges.
But in the end there were no arrests.
