Abolish Intensive & Factory Animal Farming in Ireland

Abolish the barbaric practices of FACTORY FARMING!
Why?
Intensive, industrialised, factory - they’re all terms that describe large scale modern Irish farming methods. Intensive because as many animals as possible are crammed together in the smallest possible space.

'Industrialised' because feeding, watering and dung clearing are often performed automatically. 'Factory' because the philosophy of mass production is what lies behind it all.

We keep hearing Ireland has the best farmed animal welfare in the world. Yet most animals are industrially factory farmed in this country and they have no rights and welfare standards are lacking.

Factory Farmed Pigs:
Pigs are more intelligent than dogs and used to live wild in Ireland. Now they are kept locked in prisons for meat. Pigs lived in the great forests and woods that covered most of Ireland eating beech nuts, acorns, other seeds and nuts, insects, roots and occasionally carrion. They are kept in gestational crates for days unable to move, lucky if they can access the water pipes, often broken. Once they birth they are moved to farrier crates where whey will be separated from their babies (for safety of eating or crushing them)!! They are forced to urinate and defecate where they eat and sleep completely against their clean nature, rendering them anxious and depressed.

Factory Farming 'Broiler' Chickens:
While red meat consumption declines, more chickens are being eaten than ever before. Sadly, some people believe that white meat is somehow healthy. They are wrong. Chicken meat clots arteries, triggers cancers and is one of the biggest causes of food poisoning in the world.

Factory Farming Chickens
Egg laying Hens
Do chickens kept for their eggs fare better? After all you've seen all the ads and egg boxes that proudly declare "country fresh" and "fresh from the countryside". Surely this means hens are free to roam the fields and woods? MYTH!! Most of Ireland's eggs are produced on intensive farms.

Factory Farmed Ducks:
No doubt you’ve spent many happy days feeding ducks on your local river or pond. To state the obvious, ducks are water birds - evolved to eat, swim, dive, clean and play in water. Investigations have revealed that even these animals are factory farmed...

Factory Farmed Turkeys:
At Christmas it would be nice to think humans show goodwill to other creatures. Increasing numbers do. Many Irish still celebrate by killing 10 million turkeys. Yet this"tradition" began in the Industrial Revolution and became widespread in the 1950's.

Factory Farming - Sheep;
Sheep are kept for their wool, skin, meat and milk. On the face of it, you would think that they have suffered the least from the growth of factory farming - here free range actually means free range. Yet, behind the bucolic picture lies suffering on an epic scale. We see them coming to slaughter with ingrown horns and badly progressed foot rot.

Factory Farming - Cows;
Dairy Cows
If you were an alien visitor, by now you would surely be wondering if all creatures on earth took second place to money. And of course the answer would have to be yes. But the biggest shock is yet to come. Dairy cows are Ireland’s hardest working mother and she suffers losing her calf every year. If it's female she will be taken and reserved to continue the cycle of rape and forced impregnation, if male he will be shot onsite or sent overseas for veal.

Factory Farming Beef
‘Beef’ Cattle
There are many different systems for raising cattle for meat, the least intensive being the suckler herd.
The calf is kept with the mother until weaned and then put on grass until he or she is heavy enough to be killed at about two years old. During the first week of their lives males are usually castrated.

This needs to end. Now!!