Irish Council Against Blood Sports ICABS

Ireland, Ireland

JUL 19, 2018 — “https://www.change.org/p/1753085/u/23032726?utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_campaign=382004&sfmc_tk=r%2ff4W2iW7iRcZhCc4lpkbASvtXo40j1uSOXag2FRLd3grPSaJZ5UkLMB8X1vy9O3&j=382004&sfmc_sub=140542604&l=32_HTML&u=64667104&mid=7259882&jb=12

Those animals shouldn’t have to endure one more day of the hell on earth that is fur farming” – read John Fitzgerald’s Letter to the Editor in today’s Irish Examiner…

Solidarity bring bill to ban fur farming
Irish Examiner, 19 July 2018

Fair play to the Solidarity party for preparing a bill to ban the cruel practice of fur farming in Ireland. The bill will be introduced in the Dáil after the summer recess.

More than 200,000 mink are killed on Irish fur farms every year and their treatment cannot reasonably be likened to that of conventional farm livestock. These are wild animals, inherently unsuited to captivity, let alone to being confined in small spaces for their short lives. The cages that hold them are each about the size of two shoe boxes.

Though semi-aquatic by nature they are denied a watery environment on the farms. Their captors feed them on bits of liquidised fish organs, which they have to “earn” by licking at these through the tops of their cages.

Mink are solitary creatures in the wild whereas on the farms they are forced to mingle and co-exist with other mink. They react against these cruel and deviant conditions by indulging in repeated self-harm and cannibalism, while also suffering from extreme levels of stress as they struggle in vain to escape.

At the age of six months, they are taken from their cages for slaughter. Up to 40 mink at a time are squeezed into the killing box, and gassed to death by carbon monoxide. The skin is then ripped from their bodies. Some mink are still alive and unconscious when removed from the box and have to be “dispatched” before skinning. This is definitely not a humane farming practice. It came close to being banned in 2010 but the legislation didn’t go through owing to the collapse of the Fianna Fáil/Green Party coalition.

We earnestly appeal to the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, to respond to the Solidarity bill by putting an immediate end to this practice.

Those animals shouldn’t have to endure one more day of the hell on earth that is fur farming.

John Fitzgerald
(Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports)
Callan, Co Kilkenny

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ICABS ACTION ALERT

Please contact your TDs and urge them to support the upcoming Solidarity bill to ban fur farming. Contact details for TDs can be found at https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/32 Also contact the political parties to urge them to back the bill – find contact details at http://www.banbloodsports.com/parties.htm

Join us in urging Minister Michael Creed and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to put in place a long overdue ban on fur farming.

Email “Ban fur farming NOW” to Leo.Varadkar@oir.ie, michael.creed@oir.ie, taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, AnimalHealthAndWelfareAct@agriculture.gov.ie

Tel: +353 (0)1 6194000 (Leo Varadkar)
Tel: 01-607 2000 or LoCall 1890-200510 (Michael Creed)
Tweet: @campaignforleo @creedcnw Ban fur farming NOW
Comment on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/
https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreedtd

VIDEOS

ICABS footage – Victims of Ireland’s cruel far farming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=artr7qwCLLk&index=2&list=PL43C1F00F38986C68

NARA footage showing caged mink in a fur farm in Donegal
https://www.facebook.com/NARAcampaignsIRELAND/videos/1694193503937318/

Mink pulled from cages and thrown into gassing box
https://youtu.be/m52k4aPXahU?t=3m6s