Longford Fine Gael councillor pushing for pine marten cull
30 August 2016

The Fine Gael councillor pushing for a cull of Ireland’s rarest mammal is a foxhunting supporter, the Irish Council Against Bloodsports can reveal. In a text message to ICABS in November 2014, Cllr Paraic Brady (Longford County Council) stated: “I am in favour of foxhunting as it keeps the numbers down.”

In a report this month in the Farming Independent, Cllr Brady made the remarkable claim that a pine marten “killed two of his lambs and injured three others” and that an unidentified woman was bitten by a pine marten.

The Irish Wildlife Trust has condemned the report as sensationalist and “truly misinformed” and the councillor’s claims as “alarmist and irresponsible”.

Pointing out that “rumour and hearsay is not fact”, the IWT emphasised that “pine martens do not attack sheep or people.”

According to the Farming Independent report: “although local Fianna Fail and Fine Gael councillors have informed the National Parks and Wildlife Service about the problem, they say the issue has ‘fallen on deaf ears’…The pine marten is a protected species with no predator. Local representatives are calling for this order to be lifted and for an URGENT CULL.”

The Vincent Wildlife Trust’s “Mammals in Ireland” website describes the pine marten as Ireland’s rarest native mammal species, revealing that “recent abundance estimates suggest that the total population of pine martens in Ireland is approximately 2,700 individuals”.

 ACTION ALERT 

Urge Cllr Brady to stop demonising Ireland’s rarest mammal and pushing for a cull.

Cllr Paraic Brady,
11 The Meadows,
Drumlish, Co. Longford.

Email: pbrady@longfordcoco.ie
Tel: 086 1066818

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