A fur farm in Donegal has received €133,460 in state funding, ICABS was disgusted to learn.

Tazetta fur farm near Glenties has received at least six annual grants over the past decade from state body Údarás na Gaeltachta. The grants were provided under employment and capital grant schemes.

The funding began in 2009 when the company received a €10,400 grant. The following year, Údarás na Gaeltachta handed over €26,000 to the fur farm. This was followed by €28,261 in 2014, €58,149 in 2015, €7,090 in 2016 and €3,560 in 2017. Figures for 2018 are not available.

Údarás na Gaeltachta is a “regional development authority responsible for job creation, enterprise and community development and Irish language maintenance in the Gaeltacht” and it funds and fosters “a wide range of enterprise development and job creation initiatives”. It is funded by the taxpayer via the Department of Culture and Heritage and last year received nearly €20 million.

In its lists of “enterprises which received grants”, Údarás outlines that the grants to Tazetta relate to the “product/service” of “saothrú fionnaidh” (translated as “cultivation of fur”).

The funds were shamefully released under a capital grants scheme which covers “the setting up of a new establishment” and “the extension of an existing establishment”. At least €28,261 of the funding was also paid out as an employment grant.

Tazetta is one of Ireland’s three remaining fur farms where tens of thousands of mink are permanently caged and gassed to death with Carbon Monoxide at six months of age.

According to a report in the Irish Independent in 2014, Tazetta owner Sven Sjoholm is “a third generation fur farmer with roots in Finland” and his family “set up a farm here in 1969 after the Government offered incentives to create a fur-farming industry in Ireland”.

He defended the gassing of mink to death, saying "We use a carbon monoxide gas which is governed by EU regulation. To adhere to the regulations, you first have to test the gas before the animals are put into the chamber with a carbon monoxide analyser that measures the volume of gas within the box. All of the operators on the fur farms in Ireland have been trained by the Department of Agriculture in the euthanasia of mink."

Video footage from another Irish fur farm shows mink squealing as they are pulled from the cages and flung into a gassing box.

Mink are semi-aquatic and highly evolved physiologically to hold their breath. They are able to detect a lack of oxygen in their blood and are prone to hypoxia, which means that they can continue to suffer during gassing.

Veterinary Ireland has condemned fur farming as cruel and called for it to be banned. A majority in Ireland want fur farming ended, with a recent Red C opinion poll showing that 80 per cent of Irish adults are in favour of a ban.

Shame on Údarás na Gaeltachta for disregarding the cruelty of fur farming and channelling funds into it.

ACTION ALERT

Demand an immediate end to Údarás na Gaeltachta’s fur farming grants.

Mícheál Ó hÉanaigh
CEO, Údarás na Gaeltachta
Head Office,
Na Forbacha, Galway
Telephone: 091 503100
Email: moheanaigh@udaras.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UdarasnaG
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UdarasnaG

Údarás na Gaeltachta grants to Tazetta fur farm

2017: €3,560
2016: €7,090
2015: €58,149
2014: €28,261 (confirmed as employment grant)
2010: €26,000
2009: €10,400
Total: €133,460

Urge Taoiseach/Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, and Agriculture Minister Michael Creed to put in place a long overdue ban on fur farming.

Leo Varadkar TD
Department of the Taoiseach
Merrion Street, Dublin 2
Phone: +353 (0)1-6194000 OR +353 (0)1-6403133, +353 (0)1-6194598 (Constituency Office)
Email: leo.varadkar@oir.ie, leoconstituency@taoiseach.gov.ie, finegael@finegael.ie
CC: michael.creed@oir.ie (Agriculture Minister Michael Creed)
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leovaradkar
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeoVaradkar

Michael Creed TD
Minister for Agriculture
Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Email: michael.creed@oir.ie
Tel: 01-607 2000 or LoCall 1890-200510.
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreedtd
Tweet to: @creedcnw

Please contact all your local TDs and urge them to support Solidarity's Fur Farm Prohibition bill 2018. Contact details for TDs can be found at https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/32

VIDEOS

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

Mink screaming at Vasa fur farm in Stradbally, County Laois
https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/posts/2155285741253639

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

Mink pulled from cages and thrown into gassing box
https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/videos/2241073319549210/