The Irish Greyhound Board is hiding shocking video footage of the moment a greyhound suffered a "TERRIBLE FALL" at Shelbourne Park on Saturday during the "Irish Greyhound Derby" final. The unfortunate dog sustained what the Racing Post has described as “a serious injury” before he was carried off the track after the race shamefully sponsored by Boylesports.
The IGB has withheld the race footage from its website. It shows 2-year-old Pestana tumbling to the ground after a collision at the first bend.
According to a Racing Post report, “initial suggestions [were] that he had suffered a BAD BREAK”.
Watch the footage the IGB doesn’t want you to see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYKBx_JcV9c
Also absent from the IGB’s website are the videos for Race 2 from Shelbourne Park on Saturday during which Ballymac Wisdom was knocked over at the first bend and Race 11 which saw Beechview Cognac knocked over at the second bend.
They are the latest examples of the IGB hiding footage of races in which dogs suffer falls.
Previously, the IGB also tried to hide the fact that a greyhound (Ballymac Syd) collapsed from a heart attack and died at Shelbourne Park in August 2019. The death was revealed by the Greyhound Star website which reported: “The poor dog was having a heart attack. We managed to get him to the van and I started compressions but the tongue had already gone blue. He died shortly afterwards.” There was no mention on the IGB website of the heart attack or the dog dying. Incredibly, in a notice posted on the IGB website three days after Ballymac Syd died, the dog was listed among three dogs "withdrawn from the second round of the Boylesports Derby”. “In Heat 3, Ballymac Syd will be a non-runner from trap four,” the IGB website stated.
The IGB also attempted to hide a damning report which revealed that around 6,000 greyhounds are killed every year in Ireland because they are not fast enough to win races. The report’s contents were featured on the “RTE Investigates: Greyhounds Running for Their Lives” documentary, which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYTb2qBjlMM
The report estimated that a total of 17,962 greyhounds were culled in 2013, 2014 and 2015. They were killed for “failure to produce qualifying times”, “failure to produce desired entry level times” and for an “unacceptable decline in performance”. Read the report at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X94XJGXdHtxLvraoya5rP8NE48FkwxqQ/view
The derby final at Shelbourne Park went ahead despite an appeal to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and the HSE to stop it. It was pointed out to them that racing at Shelbourne Park would apparently breach the newly declared Level 3 of the “Living with COVID-19” plan for County Dublin.
Travel restrictions state: "Do not come to County Dublin except for education, work and other essential purposes." Greyhound racing does not qualify as education, work or in any way essential.
We understand that none of the greyhound owners/trainers linked to the derby final are based in Dublin and that the dogs were brought to Shelbourne Park from outside the County.
ACTION ALERT
STOP THE STATE FUNDING FOR GREYHOUND RACING
Another €16.8 million of scarce public funds was approved for greyhound racing for 2020. Since 2001, greyhound racing has received more than a quarter of a billion euros of taxpayers' money. Please contact your local TDs and demand that they vote against this funding. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details for TDs https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/33
Contact Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and demand an end to state funding for greyhound racing.
Micheál Martin, Taoiseach
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Phone: +353 (0)1–618 4350 or +353 (0)21-432 0088
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste
Telephone: +353 (0)1-704 3630 OR +353 (0)1-640 3133
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: @LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Paschal Donohoe TD
Minister for Finance
Email: paschal.donohoe@oireachtas.ie; minister@per.gov.ie
Tel: 01 6045810
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaschalDonohoe/
Tweet to @Paschald
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