Campaigning for a better life for farm animals that doesn't cost the earth
Petition delivery On Tuesday 9th July we held a protest outside Agriculture House and delivered a petition to Minister McConalogue, signed by nearly 7,000 mostly Irish citizens. Well, an assistant accepted it, and despite following up we have received no … Continued
The European Commission (EC) recently confirmed that Ireland is breaking the law when exporting unweaned calves to Europe. This is an issue that EFI has known about, and been campaigning against, for many years. Calves are typically exported from Ireland … Continued
Once again the year was dominated by live export, which saw a 12% increase and another new market coming on the scene – Israel. Unweaned calf export increased by 19%, but export outside the EU actually decreased by 42%, with … Continued
Sea journeys Every year thousands of young bulls are sent on gruelling sea journeys in old, rusty cargo vessels to Libya, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Israel. There are two issues here. The destination countries have appalling animal welfare standards, particularly … Continued
RTE Investigates exposed the Irish dairy industries dirty secret in July 2023. It highlighted the horrendous ordeal unweaned calves go through, mostly male dairy calves that are an unwanted by product of the industry. It featured a cruel veal farm … Continued
Almost all Irish pigs are reared in intensive systems, never getting to experience the outdoors or carry out natural behaviours. However, the good news is there are more and more free range pig farms popping up around the country and … Continued
Investigation into dairy calf export from Ireland to Europe On 20th March of this year EFI conducted another investigation into the export of unweaned calves from Ireland, with L214 and Eyes on Animals. We were also joined by RTE’s investigation … Continued
Hidden horror in the egg industry The egg industry hides a very dark secret. Farmers only keep the hens for around 12 months then they are sent to slaughter. This high turnaround means a lot of egg laying hens must … Continued
Miserable existence The majority of the 1.7 million pigs in Ireland endure miserable lives confined in an unnatural environment with no stimuli. There are very few free range farms and they are all small scale meaning it is generally not … Continued
We know there are huge welfare and environmental issues associated with the Irish dairy industry: widespread water pollution causing the collapse of ecosystems [i]; GHG emissions [ii]; and the less talked about issue of hundreds of thousands of male calves … Continued