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Protest to close Sligo fur farm

Members of Ireland's Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT) held a double protest in Sligo at the weekend. It was the first time the organisation protested in Sligo and was part of a national programme of 'awareness' being highlighted in every county in July.

On Saturday afternoon the protesting group gathered at Sligo’s main Post Office to distribute information leaflets and gather signatures for a petition before continuing on to Tubbercurry where Sligo's only fur farm is located.

Speaking to Sligo Today, Laura Broxson, spokesperson for CAFT said, "This is the first time this fur farm has been demonstrated against. They kill thousands of mink every year and we want them to know that as long as they continue to murder animals for profit, we’re going to be there fighting for those animals’ lives.”

When asked what prompted this action, Ms Broxson responded: “An exposé on Irish fur farms was recently released, which documents the horrendous cruelty involved in Ireland’s fur trade. In it, you can clearly see the filthy conditions in which these poor animals were forced to live in. On some farms, no food or water is available, and on a farm in Donegal, they put 5 mink at a time in 1 standard size cage. I really don’t know how these ‘people’ lives with themselves. We’ll have copies of the DVD to hand out on Saturday, so I really hope people will take a look at it”

Speaking exclusively to Sligo Today, Kieran Lundy, the owner of North West Fur Farm in Tubbercurry explained that his farm is run under the tightest of regulations imposed by European Law and is fully licensed by the Department of Agriculture.

He dismissed all the claims by CAFT because his farm receives non-notified spot-check visits by departmental veterinary surgeons. He emphasized that all his stock are humanely killed by lethal injection, which is also supervised by vets. He said that he had spent hundreds of thousands of euro on his farm and had followed best practice standards learned on his frequent visits to state-supervised fur farms in the US.

Mr.Lundy missed the protest on Saturday as he was away from the farm at the time.


Left: Protestors at the Northwest Fur Farm. Photo:Laura Broxson



Laura Broxson concluded, “Fur farming is Ireland’s secret shame – if more people knew about them, the quicker they would be closed down. But as long as people are being kept unaware, the Department of Agriculture are happy to keep these death camps in business, by licensing them. We cannot stress enough how important that people voice their objections to this disgusting industry, whether it’s joining out campaigns, or writing to the Minister of Agriculture, something needs to be done – now.
“We campaign on a weekly basis to close Ireland’s fur farms, and for the next month we will be travelling to every fur farming county in Ireland – so if anyone would like to get involved with our campaign, please get in touch: www.naracampaigns.org” she added.

Do you have an opinion? send your comments to insight@sligotoday.ie