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Fairmont couple gives up chinchillas after 56 years

Dan and Ann Harris, long-time Fairmont residents, have been breeding, raising and caring for chinchillas on their farm since 1963. The couple recently parted with the last of their chinchillas after 56 years.

Chinchillas are native to the Andes Mountains of South America. They are nocturnal creatures known for their extremely soft fur. An adult chinchilla will weigh just about 2 pounds. Ann described them as a mix between a rabbit and a squirrel.

The Harrises shared that Dan, who was a professional painter, was injured in 1962, and that is how they got into the chinchilla business.

“Here I am with a wife and three kids and I needed to make a living,” Dan said. “Chinchillas at that time were very prominent. They were sold over the television and through the newspapers and I thought I could take care of them.”

They got their first chinchillas on Jan. 22, 1963, and about a year later moved to an acreage on the north edge of town so they would have more space. They started out with just 17 chinchillas.

Their herd grew tremendously over the years. At one point, they had 1,600, give or take.

The couple’s children — four sons and three daughters — would help out when they were younger. They even pitched in during the past few years when their parents needed help.

The chinchillas were kept in two big barns on the family’s acreage.

“They’re always in either heat or air-conditioning so you’re not out in the elements,” Ann said.

The female chinchillas produced anywhere from one to five babies two or three times per year. They would carry the babies for 112 days, just like hogs, Ann explained. The babies were weened at about 45 days old. The chinchillas were pelted at around 9 months.

During the last 56 years, a part of Dan and Ann’s life was doing the daily chores to take care of the chinchillas. They had been considering selling them for the past few years because it was getting to be too much.

“Between the two of us, we got it done, but it was past time for them to go,” said Ann, explaining that the couple’s health is not what it once was.

“We didn’t want to get out of the chinchillas. We liked them,” she added.

When Dan and Ann got into the business, there were about 35 other chinchilla ranches in Martin County. Most recently, it was just theirs.

The couple noted that there were once chinchilla shows in Fairmont, at the former VFW and the Eagles Club.

The Harrises belonged to the Southern Minnesota Branch of the Empress Chinchilla Breeder Cooperative. It used to meet regularly in New Ulm.

“You learned from each other,” Ann said. “One of the best learning places was the shows, though. You learned what to look for for quality and you could see what you needed to do to improve.”

The Harrises also traveled to Ohio, Oklahoma, Colorado, California and Nebraska for shows.

“The shows were the ways of advertising to other chinchilla people,” Ann explained.

They recall sending shipments of breeder chinchillas to Argentina, Brazil and Chile. They would drive the chinchillas to Chicago, where the animals would be put on a plane and flown to South America. They also know that many pelts went to Europe after a buyer from Canada purchased them.

Back then, chinchillas were used predominately for their fur. Now they are bought and sold as pets.

“In the last 10 or 15 years, the pet industry has just gone crazy for chinchillas,” Ann said.

While the chinchillas were kept in the barn and not often brought into their home, the couple did say that at a Colorado show in 1999, Dan found a chinchilla that he took a liking to. It was a national grand show champion and Dan did some bartering to get him.

“He was such a good animal,” Dan said. “You would go to feed him and he would look at you like he was saying, ‘Thank you.'”

“That’s the closest we’ve gotten to having one as a pet,” Ann said.

Their herd consisted of primarily beiges and standard grays, but they had some blacks and mosaics, which people like for pets.

Ann explained that the standard gray originated in the Andes Mountains. After they were brought to the United States, mutations were developed.

Dan explained the work they did with the chinchillas.

“We bred them, raised them, pelted them and sent them to a dresser to be tanned, and when they came back to us we sold the pelts,” he said.

The pelts were made into luxurious coats or vests that cost anywhere from $3,000 to $32,000. The Harrises did not get to pocket all of that money, though.

“We’re the farmers, so we got the bottom end,” Ann said. “The guy who bought the pelts got some (money), the guy who made them got some and then the guy who sold them got some.”

A man from Ohio whom the Harrises have known for years has been acting as a middleman by buying chinchillas from them and selling them all over the world the past few years. He took the last of their chinchillas, which totaled about 350.

Ann said the group included 155 moms, 26 dads, 95 babies weened, 50 babies with moms and 22 older ones for research. She explained that the ear of the chinchilla is most like the human ear so universities are interested in them.

The couple look back fondly on their decades with the chinchillas.

“We’ve really enjoyed it, both the animals and the people we’ve met who are still some of our best friends,” Ann said.

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