[Chooriwrocaey]

Another way to look at it, and i think in some Buddhist traditions this would be considered ethical, is that although it has been argued that keeping the minks is stealing (although, if they escaped I might argue that they are otherwise free) it can also be argued that by keeping them, if you ever catch them, you are preventing your neighbor from killing them, and that is good for your neighbor.

Of course, this has to do with how karma (kamma) is understood. If, by keeping the minks, I experience the negative results of theft, then by the same principle your neighbor would experience negative results from killing the minks you would otherwise return to him. In that light, if it were me, and it isn't, but if it were, I would risk for myself any negative result I might experience from what might be considered theft, in order to benefit the minks and the neighbor.