Oscar-nominated film director Lenny Abrahamson has called on the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to "BAN THE AWFUL PRACTICE OF FUR FARMING".
The award-winning director, who received a Best Director Oscar nomination for “Room”, tweeted: “Minister Creed needs to listen to Veterinary [Ireland] and get behind the move to ban the awful practice of fur farming in Ireland.”
He was reacting to a Veterinary Ireland statement urging Minister Creed to shut down the country's three remaining fur farms where around 150,000 to 200,000 mink are crammed into cages and mercilessly gassed to death with Carbon Monoxide at six months of age.
Veterinary Ireland's Dr Mark Dalton has condemned the practice as "cruelty". Speaking on RTE Radio's Sean O'Rourke show, he stated that "mink in fur farms do not have a life worth living in any way" and that “we in Ireland need to be on the right side of history”.
“In the wild, these are solitary animals and they are semi-aquatic animals,” he stated. “Typically they have a river boundary that is all theirs, up to 7 km long. If they meet, they fight. The only time they meet and don’t fight is when they meet to mate and then they separate again. They don’t like each other and we are putting them in farms right beside each other in tiny metal cages...Mink are not social animals.”
A recent Red C opinion poll has shown that an 8 in 10 majority want fur farming banned in Ireland.
A big thank you to Lenny Abrahamson for calling on Minister Creed to bring fur farming to an end.
He is among over 400 of the biggest names from the worlds of film, television, theatre, radio, sport, literature and music to have called for a fur farming ban.
The list of high profile personalities, compiled by Irish actor Rachel Pilkington (who plays Jane Black in Fair City), also includes Oscar-nominated actors Saoirse Ronan, Ruth Negga and Stephen Rea, Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan, Emmy award-winning director Emer Reynolds ("The Farthest"), Olympic medallist Sonia O'Sullivan, former international rugby player Alan Quinlan, musicians Sharon Shannon, Damien Dempsey, Mundy, Don Mescall, Mary Coughlan, Josh Gray and Brian Kennedy, author Cathy Kelly, comedians Deirdre O'Kane and PJ Gallagher and many, many more - See https://www.facebook.com/pg/banbloodsports/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1921305734651642
Lenny Abrahamson - who previously joined calls for a ban on cruel hare coursing - is a true friend of the animals, declaring: “I love animals - I always have”.
Last year, he encouraged people to adopt dogs from shelters instead of buying from breeders. On a vist to PAWS animal sanctuary in Tipperary, he said: “We need to move away from commercial breeding facilities. Growing up we always took in strays or dogs from shelters and people need to stop buying recklessly,”
ACTION ALERT
Contact Taoiseach/Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, and Agriculture Minister Michael Creed and demand 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
Email "Please support a ban on cruel fur farming" to all Fine Gael TDs and urge them to vote in favour of Solidarity's upcoming Prohibition of Fur Farming bill (due for debate in Dail Eireann on 2nd July, with a vote on 4th July).
maria.bailey@oireachtas.ie; sean.barrett@oireachtas.ie; pat.breen@oireachtas.ie; colm.brophy@oireachtas.ie; richard.bruton@oireachtas.ie; peter.burke@oireachtas.ie; catherine.byrne@oireachtas.ie; Ciaran.Cannon@oireachtas.ie; joe.carey@oireachtas.ie; corcorankennedy@eircom.net; Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie; michael.creed@oireachtas.ie; michael.darcy@oireachtas.ie; Jim.Daly@oireachtas.ie; john.deasy@oireachtas.ie; Pat.Deering@oireachtas.ie; Regina.Doherty@oireachtas.ie; Paschal.Donohoe@oireachtas.ie; andrew.doyle@oireachtas.ie; bernard.durkan@oireachtas.ie; damien.english@oireachtas.ie; Alan.Farrell@oireachtas.ie; frances.fitzgerald@oir.ie; peterm.fitzpatrick@oireachtas.ie; charles.flanagan@oireachtas.ie; Brendan.Griffin@oireachtas.ie; Simon.Harris@oireachtas.ie; Martin.Heydon@oireachtas.ie; Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie; paul.kehoe@oireachtas.ie; enda.kenny@oireachtas.ie; Sean.Kyne@oireachtas.ie; josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie; helen.mcentee@oireachtas.ie; joe.mchugh@oireachtas.ie; Tony.McLoughlin@oireachtas.ie; Mary.MitchellOConnor@oireachtas.ie; Dara.Murphy@oireachtas.ie; Eoghan.Murphy@oireachtas.ie; hildegarde.naughton@oireachtas.ie; tom.neville@limerick.ie; michael.noonan@oireachtas.ie; kate.oconnell@oireachtas.ie; Patrick.O'Donovan@oireachtas.ie; fergus.odowd@oireachtas.ie; JohnPaul.Phelan@oireachtas.ie; michael.ring@oireachtas.ie; noel@noelrock.ie; david.stanton@oir.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie
Please contact all your local TDs and urge them to support Solidarity's bill. Contact details for TDs can be found at https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/32
Urge Fianna Fáil leader, Micheal Martin, to follow the Green Party, Sinn Fein, Labour Party, Independents 4 Change and the Social Democrats in pledging support for Solidarity's Prohibition of Fur Farming bill.
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie, info@fiannafail.ie
Tel: 021-432 0088 (Constituency Office) OR 01–618 3000 (Leinster House)
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichealMartinTD
Send an email to ALL Fianna Fáil TDs
billykelleher@eircom.net; sean.haughey@oireachtas.ie; Bobby.Aylward@oireachtas.ie; brendan.smith@oireachtas.ie; johncurranff@gmail.com; Charlie.McConalogue@oireachtas.ie; michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie; sean.ofearghail@oireachtas.ie; john.brassil@oireachtas.ie; darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; eamon.ocuiv@oireachtas.ie; jackie.cahill@oireachtas.ie; john.mcguinness@oireachtas.ie; mattie.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie; micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; michael.moynihan.td@oireachtas.ie; niall.collins@oireachtas.ie; coper@eircom.net; Robert.Troy@oireachtas.ie; thomas.byrne@oireachtas.ie; timmy.dooley@oireachtas.ie; barry.cowen@oireachtas.ie; fiona@fiona.ie; declan.breathnach@oireachtas.ie; mary.butler@oireachtas.ie; kevin.okeeffe@oireachtas.ie; dara.calleary@oireachtas.ie; escanlonmcc@eircom.net; sean.fleming@oireachtas.ie; niamh.smyth@oireachtas.ie; james@jameslawless.ie; shane.cassells@oireachtas.ie; willie.odea@oireachtas.ie; margaret.murphyomahony@oireachtas.ie; anne.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie; eugene.murphy@oireachtas.ie; jack.chambers@outlook.com; james.browne@oireachtas.ie; john.lahart@oireachtas.ie; lisa.chambers@oireachtas.ie; marc.macsharry@oireachtas.ie; jim.ocallaghan@oireachtas.ie; pat.casey@oireachtas.ie; aindrias.moynihan@oireachtas.ie; frankorourke1@gmail.com
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