CHATFIELD, Minn. – The animal rights organization People against Cruelty to Animals posted a video alleging horrible conditions at the Moulton Chinchilla Ranch outside Chatfield in the upper North Branch of the Root River. The video, shot undercover, showed chinchillas suffering open wounds, exposed bones, infections, and other painful injuries and untreated ailments. PETA called in Fillmore County officials to seek a search warrant for a criminal investigation. The PETA showed 1,000 chinchillas confined to cramped, exposed wire cages. Chinchillas were denied veterinary care for abscessed and ruptured mammary tissue and protruding or pus-filled eyes, among other serious conditions, the narrator claims. One chinchilla died after being deprived of veterinary care for a raw, bloody wound. Another died after the breeder’s dog attacked her and she suffered overnight without care. One chinchilla had a large mass under the chin. In an interview the mill mill owner, Rochester attorney Dan Moulton, admitted to killing the animal and other chinchillas by snapping their necks. PETA said that neck-snapping is neither a quick nor painless death.

Moulton profile

When he was kid, in 1966, Dan Moulton’s parents purchased six chinchillas for $1,500. In 1988, Moulton bought property near Chatfield to locate a chinchilla farm and obtained federal certification. He first raised chinchillas in semitrailers. The trailers didn’t work well, so Moulton moved cages to a climate-controlled shed. At one time he had 6,000 animals. Moulton marketed chinchillas as pets and breeder stock to individuals, pet shops, and other associations. His chinchillas have also been used for hearing research in the Navy, Army, at Johns Hopkins, the National Institute of Health, University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, and other facilities. He also sold for pelts but gave that up about 2005. Sales improved over time, diminishing the population to 750. He is rebuilding the stock and experimenting with new breeding techniques to raise the number back to 6,000.

Moulton. Chinchillas are a sideline. By day he has a law practice in Rochester.