Imelda May’s Fur-Free Plea

Irish rockabilly sensation Imelda May has just written a letter to Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Marine and Food, Simon Coveney, imploring him to ban cruel fur farming in the country.

The Dublin-born singer, whose hits include “Mayhem” and “Big Bad Handsome Man”, already helps animals every single day by sticking to a vegetarian diet and, like all people with a heart, would never wear fur. Now she’s going public with her disgust at the fur industry, which still causes animals to suffer and be killed every day in Ireland.

She writes in her letter:

Almost a quarter-million minks are condemned to a life of suffering on Irish fur farms. These wild animals are kept in cramped wire cages which deny them any opportunity to carry out their natural behaviour, such as running and swimming. This confinement causes them such intense psychological distress that many go insane and begin to mutilate themselves. After a lifetime of misery, confinement and frustration, they are then skinned, sometimes while they’re still alive and conscious.

The United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia and, most recently, the Netherlands have banned fur farms, recognising that this barbaric cruelty is unacceptable in a civilised, progressive country. Ireland needs to stop dragging its feet. Regulating the industry is not enough – please make Irish people proud and enact an immediate ban on fur farming.

You can join Imelda – and thousands of others – to help end Irish fur farming by sending your own letter to Minister Coveney:

Image: “Imelda May at Evolution Festival 24-May-2009” / Yaffa Phillips / CC BY-SA 2.0