Shut down fur farms to control wild mink

DESPITE an earlier admission that it would be doomed to failure, the Department of the Environment’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is incredibly proceeding with a €1 million mink massacre.

In the NPWS-commissioned Review of Mink Predation and Control report, it is clear that as long as Ireland’s shameful fur farms remain, attempting to control mink is a waste of time and money.

“Escapes from fur farms continue to threaten the wildlife of Ireland by adding to the feral mink population, even if the feral population is managed,” it states. “Escapes from fur farms would invalidate any attempts to eradicate feral populations.”

The futile operation is expected to cost taxpayers €1,062,425 which will be spent on dogs, traps, rifles, boats, quad bikes and cars. It also pays six trappers a total of €500,000 over five years for the “well placed shots” that will smash through mink skulls and “destroy their brains”. The actual threat posed by the villainised mammal is believed to be overstated. According to RTÉ’s Mooney Goes Wild website, “the overall impact of mink in Ireland has not been as catastrophic as was first predicted”.

However, if mink are as troublesome as the NPWS claims, the sensible solution surely lies in shutting down the fur farms from which 33,000 mink have reportedly escaped over the years. It is these depraved hellholes (where animals are gassed and electrocuted to death) that are responsible for mink coming to be part of the ecosystem.

Philip Kiernan

Irish Council Against Blood Sports

PO Box 88

Mullingar

Co Westmeath