BREAKING NEWS: FUR FARMING TO BE BANNED IN IRELAND. The Irish Examiner is reporting today that "Ireland is to ban fur farming". Thank you to everybody who campaigned to help make this possible. More details to follow.

Fur farming is to be banned in Ireland
Agriculture Minister’s proposal this week will be a policy U-turn
Irish Examiner, 24th June 2019

By Elaine Loughlin
Political Correspondent

Fur farming is to be banned in Ireland, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed is to bring a proposal to Government this week to phase out fur farms.

The Government has been under increasing pressure to follow the lead of 14 other EU countries, which have already banned fur farms.

However, the move is a dramatic shift in Government policy.

Solidarity-PBP TD Ruth Coppinger, a long-time anti-fur campaigner, had already received support from across opposition, including from Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Labour, Independents 4 Change, the Green Party, and the Social Democrats, for her Prohibition of Fur Farming Bill. It is due back before the Dáil on July 3.

However, it is understood that the Government will now move on the matter.

Mr Creed is to seek approval for the drafting of legislation that would unwind the fur sector in this country in a legally robust manner.

Ending fur farming is thought to have been under consideration by the minister for some time. However, concerns around the constitutionality of such a ban, and the rights of those employed on fur farms, had delayed progress.

Around 100 [47] people are employed in the fur industry and these jobs are in Donegal, Kerry, and Offaly [Laois].

Earlier this year, Údarás na Gaeltachta was criticised when it emerged that two Donegal-based fur farms, once of which has since stopped operating, had received over €200,000 in State funding since 2009.

The Government had already raised concerns about Ms Coppinger’s bill, claiming it is legally flawed and could expose the State to significant legal liability.

It is understood that they will now draft their own legislation, instead of adopting the Solidarity-PBP bill.

A ban on fur farming would be a policy U-turn for the Government, which, in defending the industry, have often cited the employment impact on remote and rural areas.

In February of this year, Mr Creed told the Dáil:

“Notwithstanding the position in other countries, given the recommendations from the review group, there are no plans to introduce a ban on fur farming in this country.”

He said a report commissioned in 2011 did not find the arguments in favour of banning fur farming compelling and recommended that, instead, it be allowed continue under licence and subject to official control.

Under questioning from Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan, he said more rigorous controls had been adopted in recent years in animal welfare, animal accommodation, security, and nutrient management.

Answering questions in the Dáil last week, Communications Minister Richard Bruton gave no indication that the Government was working on its own plan to stop fur farms.

The decision to press ahead with a phased ban on mink farming comes after calls from Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Veterinary Ireland to shut down the industry in Ireland for the welfare of animals.

Major fashion brands are turning their back on fur, including Prada, which said that they will no longer use fur in their women’s wear products by next February.

Ms Coppinger had asked the Government to support her bill at second stage, having secured opposition backing.

In the Dáil last week, she described the farming of mink, and of other animals, for their fur, as “cruel, backward, and barbaric”.

Questioning Mr Bruton on the issue, she said fur farming, which is “all for the sake of a luxury product that most people will never see and no-one really needs,” is an example of capitalism “willing to disregard life and welfare for pure profit”.

Ms Coppinger said: “As solitary, wild, and semi-aquatic creatures, packing mink into metal cages in groups is alien and unnatural.

“For that reason, Veterinary Ireland asserts that it is impossible to regulate the fur trade and somehow make it kinder. It is not farming at all. The mink are gassed at six months and their skins are pulled off.”

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/fur-farming-is-to-be-banned-in-ireland-932571.html

IRISH EXAMINER EDITORIAL
Fur farming: Support for ban
Monday, June 24, 2019 - 12:00 AM

Only the most rosy-eyed of optimistic fur farmers in this country could imagine that the business has a future.

Banning it is back on the Dáil’s agenda, having been knocked off it by Fine Gael after its election success in 2011. With a backbencher’s prohibition bill already in the pipeline, the Government has bowed to a tide of public opinion that cannot be turned back. Pollsters at Red C record an 80% approval score for a ban, which will be the latest in a series across Europe, including the UK, Austria, and Serbia.

It’s not difficult to grasp why. When people are given the facts, the first response is disgust. Wild animals — an estimated 200,000 mink in Ireland — are kept in small cages until they are gassed, the end product is a fashion luxury with its heyday in a past century.

Producers must have seen that the game was almost up not only when mink skin exports from Ireland began to fall steadily in 2014 but also when Prada announced that it is to bin fur next February. In the very high-end market, what Prada says goes.

A consequence of ending the cruelty inherent in this trade will be lost jobs in rural areas. Other countries cushioned the blow by phasing in bans and offering fur farmers financial compensation. That is what our Government must do.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/ourview/fur-farming-support-for-ban-932493.html