Gerben Uunk announced as general election candidate for Limerick County

GERBEN Uunk has announced that he will be running as the Party for Animal Welfare’s candidate in the upcoming general election.

The Netherlands native, who is a recently naturalised citizen of Ireland, will be a candidate for the three-seat constituency of Limerick County.

The seats are currently held by Niall Collins, Fianna Fáil, Patrick O'Donovan, Fine Gael, and Richard O'Donoghue, Independent Ireland.

Currently living in Ashford in west Limerick, Gerben Uunk’s focus is on prioritising animal welfare, but emphasises: “I translate every animal-related issue to people, as we humans are animals too. We are truly all sentient beings sharing the same resources”.

Some of the “animal-related” issues important to him are the recruitment of an Animal Welfare Officer for Limerick and the prevention of animal cruelty.

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He is against the XL Bully Ban, saying: “I share the views of Limerick Animal Welfare that the XL Bully Ban is populist, short-sighted, and ignorant law, which will likely result in increased costs, capacity issues, and potential animal welfare concerns. Dogs similar to XL Bullies were already put to sleep, as a result. Don’t bully the XL Bullies. It’s not the dog’s fault.”

Other issues that he feels are pressing include homelessness and affordable housing, environmental pollution monitoring in the county, “hospital overcrowding” in UHL, and immigration.

The co-founder of the Party for Animal Welfare, he previously ran as a candidate in the Limerick Directly Elected Mayor (DEM) Election in June.

“To my surprise”, he said, he received over 700 first preference votes out of a total poll of over 80,000.