“This is the end of the line” for fur farming in Ireland

Aggiornamento sulla petizioneBan fur farming in Ireland“This is the end of the line” for fur farming in Ireland

Irish Council Against Blood SportsMullingar, Irlanda

20 nov 2020

The end to cruel fur farming in Ireland is finally in sight, with the Department of Agriculture recommending to the country’s three remaining fur farms that all the caged minks be culled before the shameful activity is permanently shut down.

The move follows advice this week from Chief Medial Officer Tony Holohan that an urgent cull be carried out amid growing fears that a mutated Covid19 strain detected in fur farms in Denmark could emerge here and undermine the effectiveness of future human vaccines.

Speaking on the Today With Claire Byrne show on RTE Radio 1 (19 November), RTE’s Agriculture and Consumer correspondent Fran McNulty outlined that earlier this week, Dr Holohan wrote to Martin Blake, the Chief Veterinary Officer in the Department of Agriculture, and told him that he had consulted with public health colleagues.

“They had looked at the situation in Denmark where this mutated form of the virus had been found and they had decided that there was a need to urgently cull the mink population here,” he told listeners.

Fran McNulty said that he understands from sources within the Department of Agriculture that the cull is not going to happen immediately but instead the three remaining mink fur farms will be allowed to kill the tens of thousands of mink over the coming weeks during the already upcoming pelting period.

Mink will be pulled squealing from the cages for the last time and cruelly gassed to death before the fur is ripped from their bodies. After that, the fur farms will NOT be allowed to replace the mink, effectively bringing fur farming to an end in Ireland.

Asked by presenter Claire Byrne “if this is the end of the line for mink farming in Ireland”, Mr McNulty replied: “Yes. I suppose what has happened is that this variant that was found in Denmark and in some other locations has hastened what has already been in the Programme for Government [i.e. a pledge to ban fur farming]. The Department of Agriculture and the Minister have wasted no time in telling mink farmers here upfront - ‘this is it, this is the end of the line, we had committed to do it, it’s being phased out and this is it’.

The Department is “calling them in to tell them ‘you’re done, you can pelt what you have, you can fulfill the orders you have but then things are over.’”

Questioned about mink in the wild, he stated: “Mink are a solitary animal. The mink that are in the wild effectively escaped from mink farms - in some cases they were set free by activists and in other cases, they just escaped - but they are solitary. So there’s less risk, we are told, of them coming into contact with humans and therefore less risk of them contracting Covid which they then can mutate and send on.

“In the correspondence sent by Dr Tony Holihan to the Department of Agriculture, he says that if this mutated or variant form of Covid was to become the dominant strain of Covid 19 in the community, then it would be a really big problem. This is utter caution to prevent anything which could impact or lessen the effectiveness of a vaccine which could come.”

Also speaking on the show was retired fur farmer Redmond O’Hanlon - who last week admitted that he used to kill mink by breaking their necks with his hands. Asked if he accepts that “this is the end of the industry”, he responded: “I imagine [it is]. Certainly in this country with the Greens dominant now. They’re anti-animal so they are.”

Claire Byrne interrupted to correct him, saying “Oh, I think they’re pro-animals”.

In appeals to Taoiseach Micheal Martin and the Ministers for Health and Agriculture at the beginning of this month, ICABS renewed calls for the fur farms to be immediately shut.

“It would be unforgivable if this course of action was not followed and a mutated version of the virus emerged in Ireland, causing further infections, deaths, lockdowns and a possible return to square one for those working to produce an effective vaccine," we stated.

They were reminded that the government has already pledged to ban fur farming and that the closure of fur farms is inevitable so therefore, closing them down now would merely be a matter of speeding up this process.

Find out more about Coronavirus (COVID-19) and how you can protect yourself - https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/