Fine Gael currently leads a minority government in Ireland. Next month. the anti fur farming bill may pass into law, as a sufficient number of Deputies have pledged to support it. However, a ban would come into effect immediately if the Fine Gael-led government would simply make an order to end fur farming.
Urge Taoiseach/Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, to support an immediate and long overdue ban on fur farming in Ireland.
Leo Varadkar TD
Department of the Taoiseach
Merrion Street, Dublin 2
Phone: +353 (0)1-6194000 OR +353 (0)1-6403133
Email: leo.varadkar@oir.ie, finegael@finegael.ie
or Leave a comment on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/leovaradkar
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeoVaradkar
(Letter in Sunday Independent (Ireland) June 16th)
Make a stand on cruel fur farming
The Government needs to start listening to animal welfare groups on the subject of fur farming. Opinion polls show that an overwhelming majority of the Irish people want it banned.
Every year in Ireland around 200,000 mink are slaughtered, mostly for the US fur trade.The mind boggles at the very thought of all those tiny creatures, reared in cages, and then having the skin ripped from their bodies after slaughter.
Fine Gael is the only political party that has not pledged to back the Solidarity Bill, due to be debated on July 2nd.
Why is it that Fine Gael is so slow to support measures aimed at easing the suffering of animals?
In 1990, it was a Fianna Fail-Progressive Democrat coalition that banned otter hunting.
In 2010, it was the Fianna Fail-Green government that banned carted stag hunting, in the teeth of fierce opposition from Fine Gael which defended this appalling "recreation" that forced captive deer to run from packs of dogs until they collapsed from exhaustion, racked by pain and bleeding from head to foot.
Now, in the run-up to a vote on a bill to end the tortuous plight of farmed mink, we have Fine Gael once again failing to respond humanely to animal suffering. I appeal to the Taoiseach, who projects a caring, liberal image, to take stand on this issue. If Fine Gael is truly compassionate, forward-looking and progressive it needs to take a stand..
John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co Kilkenny
