Question sent by
I am writing you in relation to animal welfare.
Our organisation was wondering if you could tell us why foie gras is being produced using gavage in Europe, many years after the practice was banned in the EU?
We would like to know if you have any plans to address this problem, and if you would also consider lobbying for a ban on the importation of foie gras in Ireland.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to your response.
Yours Sincerely,
National Animal Rights Association
www.naracampaigns.org
Reply from
Noel McCullagh
Thanks for your email. I apologise for the late response but things have
been hectic here since I started to receive threats on my life.
My intention and my experience is that people in the area know best how they feel on specific issues. I work as a volunteer for the Dutch Foundation "Varkens in Nood"
(Pigs in Peril) www.varkensinnood.nl
Obviously I agree with you that force-feeding (aka Gavage) is unacceptable:
does it happen in the Republic of Ireland or in France. My experience working with animal
welfare organisations is that it is best and often most effective to concentrate on your own
"backyard" before pointing the finger at the neighbours garden.
In that respect, I would be far more concerned about Irish pig-produce being
sold on the international marketplace when that meat is contaminated with extremely high levels of cancer-causing toxins, than I would about a product coming in from abroad to Ireland that is not (essentially) a poisonous substance being passed off for human consumption.
Finally, I think your suggestion on ´banning´ the import into Ireland could be better met with a ban on the practise where it is currently occurring. If indeed there is a prohibition on this practice, then it is that law which MEPs need to push or have expanded in order to become effective.
An American man born in NYC who would later create themselves The Leader of Ireland, whose grandson is now a government minister in my country, once implemented a system of bans on produce from abroad which proved economically disastrous for the ordinary folk out on the countryside. Bans are not the right way to go, rules can be bent and regulations slipped through.
It´s the existing regulations that require sharpening : in order to prevent operators in the commercial meat-markets from sailing around them.
I hope this answers your questions.
Thanks again for your email and could you please send on everything you have
on this niche topic : there are so many to get through I would prefer to hear what the people I shall be representing have to say on these important issues about which they are experts in their own rite!
That is the strength of "*working together for a better European Union*"!
*Noel McCullagh,*
Candidate, North-West constituency,
European-Parliament elections June 5th, Ireland.
Landline Tel.: +31(0)20-881.70.63
Mobile Tel.: +31(0)6-381.44.965
Email:
[email protected]