Fur farms should be shut down

PETA’s anti-fur advert showing singer Sophie Ellis Bextor holding a dead skinned fox (Irish Examiner, Nov 12) is very shocking. Maybe more shocking is the fact that there is at least one fox farm operating in the Republic, as well as six mink farms.

In these farms, the animals are confined in rows of tiny wire cages for their entire lives. Amazingly, while the UK and several other countries have outlawed fur farms, here they are legal.

The fur industry in the Republic is so small that to close it down would have virtually no impact on the economy.