IRELAND is set to ban the practice of fur farming with a memo on the issue set to be brought before Cabinet today.
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue is bringing forward a motion to prohibit fur farming outright across the entire country, providing compensation scheme in its place.
The breeding of mink solely for their fur is the chief concern.
There are around 120,000 mink on three farms in counties Laois, Donegal and Kerry, and all three were forced to cull tens of thousands of the animals earlier this year due to concerns about a new variant of coronavirus discovered on a mink farm in Denmark.
These farms are understood to breed and cull more than 100,000 mink every year, selling their fur to the fashion industry.
Around 17 million mink were culled across Europe in a desperate bid to stop Covid-19 spreading. Many of them were tipped into mass burial sites, and images of rotting mink carcasses circulated around the globe.
Fur farming has been in decline in Ireland over the past few years following a government agreement in 2019 to phase the practice out.
The outright prohibition is not expected to begin until early in 2022, but the phase out will be ramped up over the coming months, should the motion pass.
The three mink farms will be compensated for their compensated for the closing down of their operations, with a package which is likely to take into account earnings, redundancy payments and demolition fees.
