Animal rights group joins fight against new bid for alpaca farm

‘GENTLE ANIMALS SHOULDN’T BE EXPLOITED FOR FLEECE’

ANIMAL rights group PETA has submitted a petition with more than 13,000 signatures objecting to plans to build an alpaca farm in Hognaston.

The petition has been sent to Derbyshire Dales District Council along with dozens of individual letters of objection, ahead of the authority meeting to decide on the application to convert a former rabbit farm.

The main focus of the application is to erect a temporary worker’s dwelling for up to three years on the site, off Turlowfields Lane, and owner and applicant Phil Kerry has told the News Telegraph he has plans to build a productive farm in place of his controversial rabbit-rearing business, which he recently retired from.

In planning documents he has insisted the farm cannot function, and the welfare of the animals would be compromised, if a worker was not on site at all times, but his application to set up buildings related to the sevenacre farm, including a two-bedroom cabin, has raised hackles among animal rights protesters.

PETA, which previously led a campaign against Mr Kerry’s former rabbit-rearing business T&S Nurseries, says alpacas find being sheared for their valuable fleeces “extremely traumatising”.

Senior campaigns manager Kate Werner said: “Thousands of compassionate people have spoken, and Derbyshire Dales District Council should heed their concerns for animal welfare, the environment, and the health of the community.

“PETA is calling for this plan to be scrapped, preventing gentle and sensitive alpaca from being exploited for their fleece.”

PETA has also claimed the planned farm would have many negative effects on the local area, including compromising the outstanding natural landscape through the erection of buildings on the site, increased traffic from heavy goods vehicles, and the large quantities of manure and environmental pollutants, such as methane, it would generate.

Among the objections are a handful of letters from locals, who have reiterated similar concerns, which were initially raised during a previous planning application for the former rabbit farm, again to set up buildings on the site. The plans were withdrawn from an appeal process after being refused.

PETA also claims alpaca farms become a breeding ground for Bovine TB.

Mr Kerry has not responded to the News Telegraph’s invitations to comment on the petition, or the individual objections.

Derbyshire Dales District Council will meet to determine the application in the coming weeks.