Social Democrats TD, Jennifer Whitmore has highlighted that the government gives more money to cruel greyhound racing than to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
“Greyhound racing gets more state funding than National Parks and Wildlife Service #Priorities #BiodiversityCrisis,” the Social Democrats Spokesperson for Wildlife tweeted last week.
The Wicklow TD outlined that in 2019, the funding for the NPWS “was just under €14m...a paltry amount of money considering the important role the NPWS should be resourced to play.”
“It's unfair to the staff of National Parks also as they are so under resourced, never mind the impact it has on our ability to properly protect our environment,” she commented.
Compared to the less than €14 million in funding given by the government to the NPWS, greyhound racing received €16.8 million in 2019, while horse racing got €67.2 million. Since 2001, horse and greyhound racing have received more than one and a quarter billion euros of taxpayers’ money.
Last month, Deputy Whitmore called on the Minister for Heritage to establish a special wildlife crimes unit within the Gardaí. Referring to the mass killing of 23 buzzards in Cork and huge man-made fires in Wicklow National Park she declared that “we are failing to protect our heritage, our environment, our wildlife.”
In her statement issued during national biodiversity week, she said that “greater transparency and accountability of the State’s handling of wildlife crimes is essential to tackling the damage being carried out by people intent on destroying our natural heritage - until the true extent of wildlife crimes are laid bare for all to see, they will continue to go unreported, unacknowledged and unmanaged.”
Deputy Whitmore added: “I have called on the Minister for Heritage Josepha Madigan to ensure that on a national level we begin to work a lot harder and faster when it comes to crimes against wildlife. The State must step up its game and collect and publish information on all wildlife crimes or suspected crimes. It must engage in smarter heritage-protection decisions that are science-based, ecologically sound and have environmental objections at their heart.
“Being serious about protecting our wildlife and heritage means establishing a wildlife crime unit in the Gardai to support our national parks and wildlife service. There are good relationships between national parks and the Garda at a local level but formalising and resourcing it fully through a specialised, centralised Garda Unit, as is done in the UK, would make a material difference in ensuring that those that perpetrate these types of crimes are held to account.”
Earlier this year, Jennifer Whitemore expressed opposition to bloodsports. “Foxhunting and hare coursing don’t belong in a modern, progressive society,” she stated. “Terrifying and torturing animals should never be described as a sport.”.
ACTION ALERT
Contact Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and tell them to stop handing over millions of euros every year to horse and greyhound racing and instead redirect the money into the health bodies, sports clubs, homeless charities, animal rescue centres and environmental groups crying out for support.
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
Contact Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour Party TDs and urge them to vote against any further funding for cruel greyhound racing
Fine Gael TDs
JohnPaul.Phelan@oireachtas.ie,Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie,joe.carey@oireachtas.ie,david.stanton@oir.ie,colm.burke@oireachtas.ie,michael.creed@oireachtas.ie,Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie,joe.mchugh@oireachtas.ie,richard.bruton@oireachtas.ie,Eoghan.Murphy@oireachtas.ie,Paschal.Donohoe@oireachtas.ie,Alan.Farrell@oireachtas.ie,emer.higgins@oireachtas.ie,neale.richmond@oireachtas.ie,josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie,colm.brophy@oireachtas.ie,leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie,jennifer.carrollmacneill@oireachtas.ie,Ciaran.Cannon@oireachtas.ie,hildegarde.naughton@oireachtas.ie,Brendan.Griffin@oireachtas.ie,bernard.durkan@oireachtas.ie,Martin.Heydon@oireachtas.ie,charles.flanagan@oireachtas.ie,kieran.odonnell@oireachtas.ie,Patrick.O'Donovan@oireachtas.ie,peter.burke@oireachtas.ie,fergus.odowd@oireachtas.ie,alan.dillon@oireachtas.ie,michael.ring@oireachtas.ie,helen.mcentee@oireachtas.ie,damien.english@oireachtas.ie,frank.feighan@oireachtas.ie,paul.kehoe@oireachtas.ie,Simon.Harris@oireachtas.ie
Fianna Fail TDs
john.mcguinness@oireachtas.ie,niamh.smyth@oireachtas.ie,brendan.smith@oireachtas.ie,aindrias.moynihan@oireachtas.ie,michael.moynihan.td@oireachtas.ie,micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie,michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie,Charlie.McConalogue@oireachtas.ie,sean.haughey@oireachtas.ie,jim.ocallaghan@oireachtas.ie,darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie,jack@jackchambers.ie,anne.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie,eamon.ocuiv@oireachtas.ie,james.lawless@oireachtas.ie,sean.ofearghail@oireachtas.ie,sean.fleming@oireachtas.ie,barry.cowen@oireachtas.ie,willie.odea@oireachtas.ie,niall.collins@oireachtas.ie,Robert.Troy@oireachtas.ie,dara.calleary@oireachtas.ie,thomas.byrne@oireachtas.ie,marc.macsharry@oireachtas.ie,jackie.cahill@oireachtas.ie,mary.butler@oireachtas.ie,james.browne@oireachtas.ie,jennifer.murnaneoconnor@oireachtas.ie,cathal.crowe@oireachtas.ie,james.oconnor@oireachtas.ie,padraig.osullivan@oireachtas.ie,christopher.osullivan@oireachtas.ie,paul.mcauliffe@oireachtas.ie,john.lahart@oireachtas.ie,cormac@cormacdevlin.ie,normafoley1@eircom.net,joe.flaherty@oireachtas.ie,Stephen.Donnelly@oireachtas.ie
Labour Party TDs
sean.sherlock@oireachtas.ie,aodhan.oriordain@oireachtas.ie,duncan.smith@oireachtas.ie,gerald.nash@oireachtas.ie,Alan.Kelly@oireachtas.ie,brendan.howlin@oireachtas.ie
Please sign and share petitions
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:
A RED C opinion poll shows that two out of every three Irish adults agree that the government should stop funding greyhound racing. https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/posts/2443708225744721
IRISH GOVERNMENT GRANTS TO GREYHOUND RACING
2001 €11,777,583
2002 €13,613,163
2003 €12,837,200
2004 €13,382,800
2005 €13,670,000
2006 €14,012,000
2007 €14,572,000
2008 €15,257,000
2009 €13,625,600
2010 €11,852,800
2011 €11,460,000
2012 €11,258,000
2013 €11,004,000
2014 €10,844,000
2015 €13,600,000
2016 €14,800,000
2017 €16,000,000
2018 €16,000,000
2019 €16,800,000
2020 €16,800,000
Total: €273 Million (€0.273 Billion)
Source: Department of Agriculture