Ask students union to stop cruel eating of live fish
04 October 2011

Please join us in calling on the National College of Ireland's Students Union to stop the cruel eating of live fish. According to RTE's Liveline show today, students swallowed live goldfish as part of a horrific "Iron Stomach" event.

The National College of Ireland, who stressed that the event was organised by the Students’ Union ("an entirely autonomous organisation run completely independently to the college") said in a statement:

• National College of Ireland has not and never would hold a competition for eating live goldfish or any of the other items that were reported to be involved.
• We take this very, very seriously from both an animal welfare and a student welfare perspective and had we been notified, the matter would have been thoroughly investigated under the college’s disciplinary procedures. Now that it’s been brought to our attention we will certainly be launching a full investigation.
• The college itself does not and would not condone anything that involved the eating of a live animal and would certainly have stepped in to prevent the event from taking place.

"NCI now calls on The Union of Students in Ireland to open a national dialogue with their members about what is appropriate for events organised by Students’ Unions on all third level campuses," the statement added.

ICABS is disgusted to learn of this event which we believe breaches the Protection of Animals Act. In an email to the students union, we stated that "such cruelty reflects poorly on the National College of Ireland students union. We urge you to investigate this, take appropriate action and move to reassure people that events involving cruelty and killing will not form part of future Students Union events."

 ACTION ALERT 

Please join us in urging the NCI Students Union to act to stop events involving cruelty and killing.

Peter McDonnell
Students Union President
Email: president@ncisu.ie

Sent a copy of your correspondence to the Students Union of Ireland - press@usi.ie - and ask them to convey to students unions around Ireland that animal cruelty is unacceptable.

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