Sickening video footage has emerged showing greyhounds being weighed at a meat market in China, a country to which Irish greyhounds have shamefully been exported.
In the footage filmed last week and posted online by Birmingham Greyhound Protection, the doomed greyhounds are weighed in front of a truck packed with caged dogs.
Despite the COVID-19 global pandemic, the market is thronged with people. Some wear face masks; others don’t. They congregate and look on as the dogs are prepared for sale.
An untreated open wound is visible on the back of one of the greyhounds.
According to Kerry Lawrence of Birmingham Greyhound Protection, the local Chinese animal rescue group, Plush Bear Shelter, told her that “all sorts of animals were being killed and skinned alive” at the market.
“Along with a truck load of dogs, a greyhound trainer sold his greyhounds to the slaughterhouse guy,” she stated. “I have met this slaughterhouse man a few times and been to his slaughterhouse. There are four markets on at the weekend in Baicheng [northern China] and the butcher goes around collecting dogs for the restaurants.”
She explained that the greyhounds in the footage had already been reserved for a restaurant.
“These dogs have been bred in China to race on the underground tracks then sold for their little weak bodies to be used as meat,” she said. “The Greyhound Boards in Ireland and England still allow greyhounds to be exported to China. The exported dogs are bred and bred and bred until they drop, and their offspring go for meat if not used for breeding.”
“I hate the racing industry - it’s full of greed and abuse and then to add the dog meat trade on top of that is just heartbreaking,” she added. “Candy Cane Rescue fights every day to save dogs in China along with the amazing rescuers in China but sometimes it’s not enough and we lose dogs. Today unfortunately is one of them days. I just hope these dogs die fast and don’t know what’s coming.”
Were these unfortunate animals the offspring of greyhounds exported from Ireland?
Last year, Scotland’s Sunday Post reported that "about 50 Irish-bred greyhounds, some that have raced in Britain, are being advertised on Chinese breeding sites, according to campaigners who rescue emaciated dogs from China."
According to Caged Nationwide, which is campaigning to stop the exports, "the greyhound breed has now become the 3rd most popular breed found at the slaughterhouse". Its website lists some of the growing number of Irish and UK greyhounds who have ended up in China (where greyhounds are beaten, boiled alive and hung on hooks at meat markets) - https://www.cagednw.co.uk/chinaexports.html
Irish greyhounds have not only been exported to China but also to Pakistan - a country where, the Department of Agriculture has been told, "the animal welfare regime is deplorable". Despite repeated appeals, the Irish Government has refused to act to stop the exports. In 2017, Dublin TD, Tommy Broughan challenged a statement by Agriculture Minister Michael Creed that there were no "direct" exports of greyhounds from Ireland to Pakistan. Deputy Broughan pointed to "a lot of evidence in relation to persistent reports of exports to Pakistan". Responding on behalf of Minister Creed, then Minister of State Andrew Doyle repeated Michael Creed's "no greyhounds have been exported directly" line, clearly sidestepping the issue of indirect exports.
Find out more about Plush Bear Shelter and Birmingham Greyhound Protection
https://www.plushbearsshelter.org/
https://www.birminghamgreyhoundprotection.org/
ACTION ALERT
Contact the Chinese Ambassador to Ireland and demand action to shut down dog meat markets as well as the wet wildlife markets where COVID-19 is believed to have originated.
He Xiangdong
Chinese Ambassador to Ireland
40 Ailesbury Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4,
Email: pa.chineseembassy.ie@gmail.com
Tel: 01-2690031
Contact Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Agriculture Minister Michael Creed and demand an end to state funding for greyhound racing and an end to exports of Irish greyhounds to China and Pakistan.
An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: @LeoVaradkar
Leave a comment on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Paschal Donohoe TD
Minister for Finance
Email: paschal.donohoe@oireachtas.ie; minister@per.gov.ie
Phone: +353 (0)1 6045810
Leave a comment on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/PaschalDonohoe/
Tweet to @Paschald
Say NO to the cruel greyhound industry - don't attend greyhound races or fundraisers/hen parties/office parties held at greyhound tracks
Please sign and share petitions
Irish Government: Stop Giving Millions of Euro to Cruel Greyhound Industry
https://www.change.org/p/irish-government-stop-giving-millions-of-euro-to-cruel-greyhound-industry
Stop supporting the cruel greyhound industry
https://www.change.org/p/stop-supporting-the-cruel-greyhound-industry
GAA: Stop club fundraisers at greyhound tracks
https://www.change.org/p/gaa-stop-club-fundraisers-at-greyhound-tracks
Tell Gain Pet Nutrition to Stop Sponsoring Greyhound Racing
https://www.change.org/p/jimtracy-glanbia-ie-tell-gain-pet-nutrition-to-stop-sponsoring-greyhound-racing
SEE ALSO:
China must ban its virus-breeding wildlife markets - Read John Fitzgerald’s Letter to the Editor in the Limerick Post https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/photos/a.463548137094083/2819135738201966/
Horrific video footage has emerged from China showing dogs, including greyhounds, at a meat market. The disturbing footage, filmed by Chinese animal rescue group, Plush Bear Shelter, shows a small dog in a plastic shopping bag being dragged along the ground and dogs crammed into a slaughterhouse truck. https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/posts/2030154880433393
Dogs that cheated death: Brits pluck 40 pups from brutal China meat markets
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dogs-cheated-death-brits-pluck-13880212