Taxpayers’ money is being used to support fur farming, “an activity that is totally and utterly inhumane” - ICABS spokesperson Aideen Yourell speaking on Kildare’s KFM this week.
KFM’s report was in response to an Irish Mail on Sunday article which highlighted the massive grants handed over by taxpayer-funded Udaras na Gaeltachta to two fur farms in Donegal.
Highlighting the cruelty of mink fur farming, Aideen told listeners: “These are wild animals, semi-aquatic - meaning they have to be near a river. They are incarcerated in these metal cages for up to six months and then they are ripped out of the cages and gassed to death.”
Figures recently uncovered by ICABS show that Udaras na Gaeltachta has shamefully handed out more than €200,000 euro to fur farming.
Roxy Ltd fur farm - which is now closed down - received €82,123 in “grant assistance” for “feirmeoireacht mhinceanna” (mink farming). The funding was approved by Udaras in 1984 (the year the fur farm was first licensed) and over the following two decades tens of thousands of pounds and euros were handed over to the fur farm, located in Killybegs.
This is in addition to the massive grants paid out to Tazetta - one of Ireland’s three remaining fur farms where an estimated 200,000 mink are caged and poisoned with Carbon Monoxide. Tazetta has received at least six annual grants from Údarás na Gaeltachta - 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.
SEE ALSO:
Outcry as State pays €200k to mink farms
Irish Mail on Sunday, 2 June 2019
https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/posts/2228038290645050
Disgust and anger at revelations that 2 fur farms received over €200,000 in state funding
https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/posts/2166273750154838
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
Contact Taoiseach/Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, and Agriculture Minister Michael Creed and demand a long overdue ban on cruel 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/