Up to 6,000 of the voracious predators were freed from Crow Hill fur farm near Ringwood on Saturday in a raid claimed by the Animal Liberation Front.

Conservationists have warned the mink will wreak environmental havoc on wildlife in the area.

And the anti-fur group Respect for Animals, formerly Lynx, has branded the incident a public relations disaster in a war it was winning.

'Monumentally stupid'

Respect for Animals spokesman Mark Glover said: "This is a disaster, I can't believe anyone seriously involved in the campaign against the fur trade would be involved in this.

"It's a disaster for the campaign, and it's a disaster for the mink, which will be shot or run over in huge numbers."

Animal Liberation Front spokesman Robin Webb claimed direct action was justified because the government had not fulfilled its pre-election pledge to ban fur farming.

But Mr Glover dismissed the view as naive. "The Government has said it's going to ban fur farming and there is no reason to believe they are not going to do so.

"This campaign has been a great success story. The days of fur farming are numbered and all of the fur trade knows that."

The BBC's John Andrew: 'Thousands of mink are still on the loose'

The mink hotline set up by the New Forest District Council has had reports of mink turning up in houses and pet rabbits and chickens being killed.

Mike Everett of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said: "What they are is very efficient predators, and in large numbers that can do a consideable amount of damage.

The RSPB's Mike Everett explains the mink threat

"If there is a plus side to the act of monumental stupidity then it must be that this is not the nesting season.

"No matter what happens to all these minks - whether they be shot, trapped, or die of starvation - some will survive and threaten ground nesting birds in the spring."

About 2,000 were rounded up immediately and another 2,000 have been shot or run over, but the rest are still on the loose.

Mink is originally a North American species, but has been farmed in Britain for many years and the animals are already living in the wild in Britain.

Robin Webb says ALF right to work outside the law

'A taste of freedom'

A spokesman for the ALF, Robin Webb, defended their actions: "I know many of the mink are going to die, but at least they will have had a taste of freedom."

He denied that the mink will destroy the local ecosystem: "As they are territorial animals, you're not going to get packs of mink running around for a long periods of time. They're not going to wipe out entire species.

Robin Webb, from ALF, speaking on BBC News 24: 'I have no regrets'

"And some will survive and be able to live their lives in a natural way. If they had remained all would have been killed in a particularly barbaric way simply to make fur coats that nobody needs."

The New Forest is on an international list of the world's 900 most important wetland areas and was named as an environmental haven after the Rio Earth Summit.