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When Cassie Marks heard about wild minks on the loose near her Pennsylvania home Sunday night, she grabbed animal traps and drove south on Route 890.

Marks, who works for an animal rescue organization, heard purring noises when she pulled over and got out of her car. When she turned on her flashlight, she saw minks everywhere.

Many were running through the woods and on the road; others were dead.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Marks told The Washington Post. “They have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.”

On Sunday morning, an intruder cut holes in the fence of a Rockefeller Township, Pa., mink farm, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Hundreds of the small, furry mammals escaped and ran toward a nearby highway, state officials said.

Since then, authorities and residents have spotted and caught minks on the road, under buildings and hiding in woods.

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“It’s the most friendly infestation you could think of,” said Luke O’Brien, who lives in nearby Sunbury, Pa.

Police originally said between 6,000 and 8,000 minks escaped, but Pennsylvania Game Commission Lt. Aaron Morrow said Tuesday that many stayed inside the farm. Morrow said just under 1,000 minks ran away from the property.

The Richard H. Stahl Sons mink farm could not be reached for comment. Mark Stahl, who works at the farm, told the Daily Item that he didn’t know what had happened and that people should avoid the minks. Morrow echoed that sentiment, saying that minks can bite people and spread diseases.

Within the last year, minks have also been let loose from farms in Ohio and Wisconsin that breed minks for their fur. Officials said at the time that they suspected an animal rights group was responsible for the releases.

In Pennsylvania, police are searching for a suspect or suspects who released the minks at 7:27 a.m. Sunday. Most of the minks have been found in Sunbury, a city with a population of roughly 9,500.

Jayson Mitch said he was driving on Route 890 in Northumberland County around 7:30 a.m. Sunday to buy pizza bites at a grocery store for his 7-year-old son. On the way, he spotted a small furry animal that he thought was a ferret on the side of the road.

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Mitch pulled over, picked it up and laid it on his lap while he drove home, then placed it in a cage when he got back to Sunbury. Through online research, Mitch learned the animal was a mink.

When the 36-year-old drove back to the highway later that morning to release the mink into the wild, he saw more of them.

Minks are about two feet long with eight-inch tails and weigh between one and two pounds, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The animals have a strong sense of hearing, sight and smell, can walk slowly for miles and kill prey with a powerful bite, the Pennsylvania Game Commission wrote on its website.

Around 7:45 a.m. Monday, another resident, Rebecca Correll, said she looked out the window of her home in Sunbury and saw a dark animal climbing the steps of her front porch. She thought it was a cat, but when it walked closer, Correll saw it was a mink. When she drove to work shortly after, the 64-year-old saw dead minks on the road.

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Correll said the creatures are cute, but she’s worried about how they’ll act if they grow hungry. She said her neighbor’s chicken was killed Monday morning, and a mink was the likely culprit.

Correll brought her four chickens into her garage and won’t let her dog, a Japanese chin named Sunny, linger in her yard. When she looks outside at night — when minks are most active — she sees them all over.

“This is like living in a horror movie, but you know what’s coming, and you’re probably not going to die,” Correll said.

Marks, who works at a cat rescue and wants to help other lost animals, has been setting live traps — small metal cages that close after sensing movement inside — during the day and luring minks with cat food. She said she checks the traps between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.

The 37-year-old said she has so far trapped dozens of minks and taken them to the Sunbury Animal Hospital, which is delivering them back to the farm. Marks said the hospital has rescued about 110 minks, but many others have been struck by cars or shot.

Officials don’t know how long they’ll be rounding up minks. Correll and her husband, Kevin, have spent their nights this week luring minks into traps with tuna fish.

“That’s probably going to be our evening routine for a while,” Kevin Correll said.

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