Fur flies as animal rights group turn to shock tactics

A WOMAN was beaten to death in broad daylight for her fur coat in a major city centre yesterday as helpless passersby looked on.

However, the bloody scene was not yet another indicator of Ireland’s crime culture, but a sign of another scandal that animal rights campaigners say must be brought to an end.

The action on Cork city’s St Patrick’s Street was set up by the Animal Rights Action Network (Aran) to highlight the ongoing mistreatment of mink, foxes and other animals that suffer unethical treatment on fur farms across the country.

During a half-hour protest at the busy city centre location, the group’s national co-ordinator, John Carmody, and Blarney native Marika Rey took centre-stage to warn that killing an animal for its coat is akin to murdering a person for theirs.

The fake attack was a public re-enactment of an infamous anti-fur clothing commercial from the late 1980s, when the issue was the subject of widespread attention.

However, despite the fur clothing trade taking a significant hit in the subsequent decades, Mr Carmody said Ireland is lagging behind Europe when it comes to tackling the killing of animals for fur.

“The message we are trying to get across is that fur is murder, it’s basically the same as killing a person on the street for their coat,” he said.

“The only law in Ireland for addressing the mistreatment of animals for their fur is from 1911. While the Greens tried to get a law through last year it hasn’t been enacted yet, so it’s a free-for-all in Ireland in terms of the treatment involved.

“The sale is limited here, but these animals are still treated appallingly for their fur, so we are urging the Government to ban the sale of fur in Ireland.

“This has been done in other countries, like the UK, and is due to be introduced in Croatia by 2013, so it reasonable for here,” he said.

Aran, which was founded in the early 1990s, has more than 3,000 members and campaigns peacefully against all forms of animal abuse.

The organisation made headlines in July when it gave 38-year-old John Byrne an award after he jumped into the Liffey river in Dublin city to rescue his pet rabbit, who had been flung in by a passing youth.

* Aran can be contacted online at, www.aran.ie, or via e-mail at [e-mail]