Sir, - The present euphoria surrounding the highly acclaimed film Babe should do no harm at all to the plight of tens of thousands of Irish breeding sows who spend one pregnancy after another tethered into narrow cubicles. Hundreds of, these, highly intelligent and active animals are kept in this way in each windowless shed.
Clearly, the public and consumers alike, are beginning to realise that depriving these animals of their basic needs, including the need to move, can only cause them intolerable suffering. The close confinement of Irish sows is unnecessary and out of line with modern-day thinking on animal welfare. It should fall to our own Department of Agriculture to seek financial assistance from its EU counterparts which would enable Irish pig farmers to switch to more humane methods of pig production. - Yours, etc.,
Cherrygrove,
Model Farm Road,
Cork.