On 22 July at 1 p.m. in the Polish Parliament the exhibition entitled “The Real Price of Fur – Polish fur farms from the inside” was opened. The exhibition is organized by the Open Cages Association, and the Marshal of the Sejm Simon Holovnia took the patronage over it. Members and Members and peculiar guests took the floor. They all agreed: it's time to finish breeding animals for fur in Poland.
The press conference was attended by members of the Sejm Extraordinary Commission on Animal Protection, including its chairman, Deputy talker of the Parliament of Dorota Sunday, as well as Alicja Łepkowska-Gołas, Katarzyna Piekarska, Małgorzata Tracz, Łukasz Litewka, Marcin Józefaciuk and Paweł Suski, as well as parliamentarians outside the committee: Claudia Jachira, Monika Rosa, Elżbieta Burkiewicz, Barbara Okula and Wioleta Tomczak.
The exhibition consists of 18 photographs, selected from hundreds of photographs, which open cage activists collected during the last decade. They show foxes, mink and yen in tight cages, any with leg injuries and wounds. As the organizers of the exhibition emphasize:
– It's just a part of what we'd like to show. Unfortunately, most photos are besides drastic to be exhibited in the Sejm.
Deputy talker of the Parliament Dorota Sunday recalled that the Animal Protection Commission was set up for the first time in the past of the Sejm and confirmed that there is simply a cross-party agreement to ban animal husbandry on fur in Poland. In September, the committee will start working on the chosen laws.
Margaret Tracz, co-author of the bill, said about its main assumptions:
– This task assumes a five-year transitional period, compensation for breeders and severance for workers, so it is specified a social contract. I know that he enjoys the support of those smaller breeders who themselves see that breeding animals for fur is already moving to the past and would like to change. I very much hope that, thanks to this exhibition and the hard work of many non-governmental organisations, the Open Frames, which have been dealing with the issue of bans on animal husbandry on fur for years, we will be able to introduce this ban after 3 decades of fighting and 7 legislative attempts for the welfare of animals, people who live in the area of farms, and the environment.
Romana Bomba, a resident of the village of Cieszyn-Jesiona, came to the beginning of the exhibition, who struggled for years with the nuisances associated with the vicinity of mink farms. – It cannot be that 1 man earns money on specified a thing, and all villagers and millions of animals suffer.
The social support that has been enjoyed by the ban for years has been reminded by Paweł Suski: "It is said that politicians should perceive to the voice of the people, and the public has made it clear from the beginning of this fight in the polls - and 70% - that this should be over.
Katarzyna Piekarska, Łukasz Litewka and Barbara Okuala besides spoke. Bogna Wiltowska, the author of respective photographs included in the exhibition, besides described her work, which has documented the suffering of animals in fur farms for 10 years. She stressed that although looking at these photos may be hard and uncomfortable, nothing compared to what animals grow on furs.
The event was besides attended by actor Zofia Jastrzębska, who has long supported the run to ban animal breeding on fur. Earlier this week the premiere was touching campaign with Jastrzębska.
The exhibition will be available until 28 July in the Sejm building on the ground floor.
