“I'm not a big greyhound [racing] fan...greyhound stadiums are no longer flavour of the month” - Taoiseach Micheál Martin speaking this week on the Off the Ball show.
In the interview on Tuesday (4 May 2021), the Fianna Fáil leader was questioned about the government’s massive grants to racing and asked about the thousands of greyhounds killed every year because they are not fast enough to win races.
Watch the interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsKL501QxBU&t=884s
“What's the logic on €19 million to the greyhound industry?” Off the Ball presenter Joe Molloy asked, pointing out that while racing gets huge hand-outs, sports are scrimping and saving to survive.
“Well it goes back a long time,” Taoiseach Micheál Martin responded. “It's a legacy issue that was around the development of the sport in terms of revenue generated within the sport, in terms of betting levies and so on, that some of that will go back into modernising. If you remember all those modern stadia, around greyhound stadiums. No, they're no longer flavour of the month as they once were. I can recall in the late ‘90s, early 2000s, greyhound stadia were being modernised, people were having their nights out there, companies were going there and so on. Likewise with the horse racing industry. And so there's almost a sort of industry, you know this is an industry, this is a sector that's important in terms of job creation, not just in terms of a sport on its own.”
He added: “There does need to be a rebalancing of [the funding] and particularly in terms of other sports. I mean, take a sport like boxing, for example, I think it's very underfunded, particularly at the grassroots level.”
“I'm not a big greyhound fan but I know in Cork City, greyhound racing WAS a huge thing,” he later commented. An acknowledgement that it is no longer a “huge thing”, with attendance at tracks plummeting in the past decade and more and more people staying away due to revelations about cruelty and killing.
Off the Ball’s Joe Molloy noted that the RTE investigates documentary highlighted a €100,000 Greyhound Racing Ireland report (which GRI tried to bury) revealing “six thousand greyhounds allegedly killed per year because they weren't fast enough, ten times the number needed are bred”. He told listeners that the report conceded that, from an animal rights perspective, the mass killings could threaten the very existence of the industry. He asked the Taoiseach: “What's being done there? How many are being killed a year now, do we know? Have we looked into this?”
Micheál Martin’s response: “Yes, I mean first of all, there's a lot of focus in terms of animal welfare in terms of greyhound industry and I think they [Greyhound Racing Ireland] know, to be frank, they would we be on borrowed time if that hasn't been dramatically improved or any further revelations of that kind emerge. There would be serious repercussions. It's unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable.”
Asked “would you have any idea how many have been killed in the last year?”, the Taoiseach replied: “I don't have it right here.”
He went on to claim that the Department of Agriculture - which has continued to channel millions of euros into greyhound racing, despite the shocking revelations - "would be very focused on [the issue of greyhound killings], particularly in terms of alternative programs to protect animals who don't make it - obviously who are dogs who don't make the grade - that they wouldn't in any way be harmed and that there would be alternative pathways if you like for the animal in particular and for the dog in particular.”
The reality is that greyhound racing is inherently cruel, based as it is on overbreeding dogs, choosing the fastest and getting rid of many of the rest. Greyhound Racing Ireland is quick to quote rehoming stats but these only cover a fraction of the dogs exiting racing. Furthermore, there are serious doubts about the accuracy of its figures, given recent revelations that greyhounds listed as “rehomed” on the GRI website were, in reality, exported for use in racing and coursing in China and Pakistan, countries with little or no animal welfare legislation where horrific cruelty occurs.
Micheál Martin was asked “how will we know improvements have been made” and if details “will be published anywhere so we can check it and verify it?“
“Yes obviously, I mean - the annual reports from Bord na gCon [Greyhound Racing Ireland] and Department of Agriculture itself,” the Taoiseach replied. “We have no agenda in terms of perpetuating something in terms of cruelty to animals or anything like that.”
In fact, Greyhound Racing Ireland annual reports do not contain details about greyhound injuries or deaths.
Far from publicising deaths, GRI has attempted to hide details. As well as trying to suppress the damning report which revealed that thousands of greyhounds are culled each year, including an estimated 17,962 in the period 2013 to 2015, it has tried to hide deaths at tracks.
For example, a greyhound named Ballymac Syd, who collapsed from a heart attack and died at Shelbourne Park in 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 Greyhound Racing Ireland website of the heart attack or the dog dying. Incredibly, in a notice posted on the GRI website three days AFTER the death, the dog was listed among three "withdrawn from the second round of the Boylesports Derby”. “In Heat 3, Ballymac Syd will be a non-runner from trap four,” the GRI website stated.
More recently, GRI neglected to mention that two greyhounds died at Shelbourne Park and Limerick tracks. One of the greyhounds suffered a “suspected heart attack” and died at the end of a race at Limerick Stadium on 7th November 2020, while the other greyhound “collapsed and died at the end of a race” at the Dublin track after suffering a “haemorrhage into the abdomen from a rupture of the aorta” on 4th December. In a statement published on its website earlier this year, further to a request for information from Joan Collins TD, GRI acknowledged that 255 greyhounds were injured at tracks and 88 were “put to sleep” but made no reference to the two additional greyhounds who collapsed and died after races.
If Micheál Martin genuinely considers cruelty and killing to be “absolutely unacceptable”, he must not hesitate to bring this inherently cruel activity to an end in Ireland. This can be hastened by scrapping the massive government grants that are propping up racing. Such a move would prove popular with the electorate - a RED C opinion poll found that a two thirds majority want the funding stopped, with just 16 per cent in favour of it continuing. Petitions urging the government to stop the funding have attracted over 400,000 signatures.
ACTION ALERT
STOP THE STATE FUNDING FOR GREYHOUND RACING
Since 2001, Greyhound Racing Ireland (formerly the Irish Greyhound Board) has been granted more than a QUARTER OF A BILLION EUROS, including €16.8 million for 2020 and another €19.2 million for 2021. This is unacceptable and must be stopped.
Please contact your local TDs and urge them to oppose this funding. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details for TDs https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/33
“Stop state funding to cruel greyhound racing” - Email all Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Green Party, Sinn Fein and Labour Party TDs.
Fianna Fáil 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
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
Green Party TDs
Eamon.Ryan@greenparty.ie; catherine.martin@oireachtas.ie; patrick.costello@oireachtas.ie; francisnoel.duffy@oireachtas.ie; neasa.hourigan@oireachtas.ie; brian.leddin@oireachtas.ie; steven.matthews@oireachtas.ie; malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie; joe.obrien@oireachtas.ie; marc.ocathasaigh@oireachtas.ie; roderic.ogorman@oireachtas.ie;
ossian.smyth@oireachtas.ie
Sinn Fein TDs
john.brady@oireachtas.ie; pat.buckley@oireachtas.ie; Sean.Crowe@oireachtas.ie; david.cullinane@oireachtas.ie; Pearse.Doherty@oireachtas.ie; dessie.ellis@oir.ie; kathleen.funchion@oireachtas.ie; martinkennysf@gmail.com; MaryLou.McDonald@oireachtas.ie; denise.mitchell@oireachtas.ie; imelda.munster@oireachtas.ie; eoin.obroin@oireachtas.ie; donnchadh.olaoghaire@oireachtas.ie; aengus.osnodaigh@oireachtas.ie; louiseoreillysf@gmail.com; maurice.quinlivan@oireachtas.ie; Brian.Stanley@oireachtas.ie; mark.ward@oireachtas.ie; chris.andrews@oireachtas.ie; martin.browne@oireachtas.ie; matt.carthy@oireachtas.ie; sorca.clarke@oireachtas.ie; roseconwaywalsh@eircom.net; reada.cronin@oireachtas.ie; pa.daly@oireachtas.ie; paul.donnelly@oireachtas.ie; mairead.farrell@oireachtas.ie; thomas.gould@oireachtas.ie; johnny.guirke@oireachtas.ie; claire.kerrane@oireachtas.ie; padraig.maclochlainn@oir.ie; johnny.mythen@oireachtas.ie; ruairi.omurchu@oireachtas.ie; darren.orourke@oireachtas.ie; patriciaryan975@gmail.com; pauline.tully@oireachtas.ie; vwynne@gmail.com
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 support our campaign with a donation
https://www.paypal.me/banbloodsports
Watch RTE’s award-winning "Greyhounds Running For Their Lives" documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYTb2qBjlMM