Newswire » Your Say! » Dying for Fashion

Dying for Fashion

Fur For Fashion

Dying for fashion

The National Animal Rights Association (NARA) was launched in 2007.  NARA supports the rights of animals in Ireland.  They protest against fur shops, circuses and pharmaceutical companies that support vivisection (cutting animals while they are still alive for experimental purposes.) There are 5 mink farms in Ireland.  About 200,000 minks are killed annually.  The Green Party tried to campaign for a ban on fur farms but this plan was abolished when Fine Gael came into Government.  So sadly the fur trade will continue to exist until we successfully introduce a ban into our legislation.  Dublin City Council have already begun to support the fur trade ban by passing council bans on real fur.  However the bans don’t apply to individual shops in their area.  It is still a process towards the eradication of the fur industry in Dublin.

The Animals who are killed for their fur in Ireland include: mink, fox and rabbits.  In other countries around the world chinchillas, raccoons, coyote, and even cats and dogs (who are often skinned alive) are killed to make fur clothing.  In Ireland, mink are kept in dirty cages where they have no room to move around.  They have no access to water, despite been semi aquatic animals.  They are placed in cages along with other mink, even though they are solitary animals.  This confinement leads to psychological behavioural problems such as self harm, cannibalism and repetitive behaviour.  Mink are highly intelligent animals that have outperformed cats when they were tested on their ability to recognize objects and make object selections from memory. They live in the wild close to rivers, lakes and creeks. They have webbed feet which make them strong swimmers.

Mink are only 6 months old when they are killed. Around 40 of them are placed into a ‘killing box’ at a time.  They are then gassed to death by carbon dioxide.  They are unconscious but not dead when they are skinned.  The Central Statistics Office in Ireland exported 141,812 mink pelts from the Republic of Ireland in 2010; this was valued at just under €5 million euro. Irish celebrities Imelda May, Saoirse Ronan, Pauline McLynn, Angeline Ball, Sharon Shannon and Robert Sheehan are among the stars who support the ban of the fur trade. Imelda raged: “Fur farming is a shameful, cruel industry that has no place in modern Ireland. Please make Irish people proud and enact an immediate ban.”

This comes after they viewed distressing footage of animals been kept in captivity waiting to be killed.

In my opinion how can we as Irish people allow this cruelty to occur each year in this day and age? To actually skin these animals while they are still alive is beyond cruelty, it is malevolent.  I think the majority of Irish people are not aware of the inhumane killing that takes place in order for them to wear their mink coat.  I would hope that if they were informed about this, that they would no longer support the fur trade. We are supposed to be evolving towards humanity, ascending into a world of peace and justice.  I don’t think we can ever justify killing these innocent animals in such an inhumane way.  They can’t speak so therefore they are suffering in silence.  They are living, breathing, and feeling beings, just as we are.  I ask you to please consider where your fur clothing came from and the suffering that took place in order for you to wear it the next time you go to purchase fur.

Leave a Reply

© 1991-2014 Fountain Resource Group Ltd. · Registered Company Number: 193051C · RSS · Website designed by Solid Website Design