Éamon de Buitléar talks about his concerns for planet Earth, a love of wildlife how he started out in broadcasting.
Writer, film maker, broadcaster, senator, environmentalist and musician Éamon de Buitléar is very concerned about the current state of planet Earth, as he tells Pat Kenny
We are really messing up the planet, as you can see.
A passionate interest in the landscape began when as a small boy growing up in County Wicklow. The family home was next to a river, where Éamon de Buitléar observed fish, otters and the resident heron on a regular basis. A love of fishing led to a job in a fishing tackle shop when he finished school. Work in the shop was combined with working on programmes for Radio Éireann, and his career as a filmmaker subsequently followed.
In addition to the outdoors, his fascination with animals has been with him for as long as he can remember,
I asked my mother when I was nine, how would I own the zoo.
His many pets included guinea pigs, which were entered for shows, as well as being bred and sold for pocket money. After his stints in fishing tackle shops, he owned and ran a pet shop, often borrowing customers' pets for spots on RTÉ television shows.
How does someone who has spent most of his life observing animals in the wild he feel about zoos in this day and age? Modern zoos do have their place, but only if animals are housed humanely, as,
You cannot keep animals...if you do not have enough space for them.
This episode of 'Kenny Live' was broadcast on 19 January 1991. The presenter is Pat Kenny.
