A big THANK YOU to top travel booking company Expedia for removing Shelbourne Park greyhound stadium from its website.
Following an appeal from ICABS, the company took down a page that presented greyhound racing as an "adrenaline-pumping rush that's fun for the whole family" and offered track tickets for sale.
Thumbs up to Expedia for for its compassionate response. Rated number 1 in Travel Weekly's Power List for the eighth year in a row last year, Expedia - whose motto is "travel is a force for good" - employs around 24,000 and in 2019 had sales of over $107 billion. Its websites list 2.9 million properties and 210,000 activities as well as flights, cruises and car rental deals. Find out more at https://www.expedia.com
In our appeal to Expedia, we pointed out that Irish tourism bodies Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland have both stopped promoting greyhound racing, due to the suffering and deaths, and fears that it damages Ireland's reputation as a tourist destination.
We highlighted that Shelbourne Park is one of the worst tracks in Ireland for dog injuries and deaths. At least 196 greyhounds suffered injuries there and 47 died or were killed by a track vet over the past six years alone. Among the victims are a greyhound who collapsed and died in December 2020 after suffering a “haemorrhage into the abdomen from a rupture of the aorta”, a greyhound who died of a heart attack after a race and another who was carried away bleeding with a leg bone “popped out”. At tracks around Ireland in the same six year period, at least 2,146 greyhounds suffered injuries and 715 were killed.
Many more are also killed behind the scenes because they don’t make the grade. As revealed in RTE’s award-winning "Greyhounds running for their lives", around 6,000 greyhounds are killed every year simply because they are not fast enough to win. The documentary included horrifying scenes of greyhounds being delivered to a knackery where they were shot in the head and dumped into a skip. One dog was seen writhing on the ground as his merciless owner drove away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYTb2qBjlMM
Following the shocking revelations, attendance at Shelbourne Park has continued to fall. A May 2020 Indecon report commissioned by Greyhound Racing Ireland showed that more and more people are staying away from greyhound tracks.
In January 2020, for example, Shelbourne Park saw a massive 36% drop in attendance – down by 2,168 to 3,752, compared to the same month in 2019. Attendance continued to fall at Shelbourne Park in February 2020 – compared to February 2019, it was down by 41% (3,730) to 5,240.
Expedia is the latest in a growing list of companies that have rejected greyhound racing, including Air France (which removed Irish greyhound racing from 44 of its international websites), Thomas Cook, Toyota Ireland, Opel Ireland, Heineken Ireland/Murphy's, Dublin Bus, Eir Sport, Tesco Ireland, Electric Ireland, Applegreen, Barry's Tea, Hyde Irish Whiskey, Galway Crystal, FBD Insurance, Galway Tourism, Tramore.ie, Botanica International, Voucher Cloud, Permanent TSB, Maldron Hotels, Clayton Hotels, North Star Hotel Dublin, Metropole Hotel Cork, Treacy's Hotel Waterford, The Mayson Hotel, Trip Indicator, In Your Pocket City Guides, Food For Thought (the official publication of the Restaurants Association of Ireland), Hertz, MummyPages.ie, Ireland Before You Die, Dublin Convention Bureau, etc.
Watch RTE’s award-winning "Greyhounds Running For Their Lives" documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYTb2qBjlMM
Sign and share the petitions
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
Ireland must ban greyhound racing
https://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-gb/184/794/470
“Stop Greyhound Racing”
https://www.change.org/p/the-department-of-agriculture-stop-greyhound-racing
Please support our campaign with a donation
https://www.paypal.me/banbloodsports