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Thousands of unwanted greyhounds are killed in Ireland every year but the exact numbers are to remain hidden because Greyhound Racing Ireland’s “traceability system” only traces greyhounds who have been registered to race. That’s according to a statement published on the Greyhound Racing Ireland website.
On a page listing racing-related Parliamentary Questions, a March 2022 question from Green Party TD Brian Leddin to Minister Charlie McConalogue is followed by statements about the traceability system’s exclusion of dogs who are born but never registered.
“The new traceability system will only trace dogs who have been registered to race at circa 12-14 months,” the statement outlines. “It will do nothing to track the fate of the thousands of dogs who are born every year but don’t make it on to the track. If we don’t know how many dogs are born every year to race, then we will remain ignorant of the true scale of the destruction of unwanted greyhounds – dogs referred to in the industry as ‘wastage’.”
It goes on to acknowledge that “the Irish Coursing Club is funded in large part by the registration fees paid by those who race greyhounds” - another reason to boycott greyhound tracks - and adds: “Greyhound Racing Ireland is a semi-state body, funded extensively from the public purse - the number of greyhounds born to race every year is important information for the public.”
RTE’s award-winning “Greyhounds Running For Their Lives” documentary exposed some of the horrors of greyhound racing and hare coursing in Ireland, including the culling of unwanted greyhounds.
It featured extracts from a damning report which Greyhound Racing Ireland attempted to bury. The report revealed that around 6,000 greyhounds are killed here every year because they are not fast enough to win races.
The report estimated that, for example, 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 RTE documentary included shocking, secretly filmed video footage of greyhounds being delivered to a knackery where they were shot in the head and dumped in a skip. One of the greyhounds who shot could be seen writhing on the ground in agony as his merciless owner drove away. Watch the documentary at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYTb2qBjlMM
Greyhounds are not only mercilessly killed behind the scenes but also at tracks.
At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture on 25 May, Greyhound Racing Ireland’s Veterinary Director revealed that in the first four months of 2022, “approximately” 72 greyhounds suffered injuries at tracks around Ireland and 24 greyhounds were “euthanised”, i.e. killed by track vets.
The latest figures from GRI follow sickening statistics for 2021 showing 351 greyhounds were injured at races and 154 of them were killed. The number of greyhounds who lost their lives at tracks in 2021 was the highest since records began in 2014.
The latest figures bring to over 2,800 the number of greyhounds injured and 962 the number killed at Irish tracks since 2014.
It should be noted that the Greyhound Racing Ireland stats only cover reported injuries and deaths which occurred at races and do not include the greyhounds injured at races and later killed elsewhere. They also do not include greyhounds injured and/or killed at sales or official/unofficial trials.
How many more dogs have to suffer and die before the Irish Government stops the massive state grants that are keeping greyhound racing afloat? A RED C opinion poll commissioned by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports and Greyhound Action Ireland confirms that a two-thirds majority want the funding stopped (with just 16% in favour of it continuing), while petitions urging the government to end the funding have more than 400,000 signatures.
ACTION ALERT
Don’t go greyhound racing. Please join us in urging the government to end the state funding that is keeping the dying greyhound “industry” afloat.
Since 2001, Greyhound Racing Ireland has been granted more than a QUARTER OF A BILLION EUROS, including €16.8 million for 2020, €19.2 million for 2021 and €17.6 million for 2022. 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
Urge the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Green Party, Sinn Fein and Labour to stop the funding and back a ban on cruel greyhound racing
Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Phone: 021-432 0088
Leinster House: 01–618 3000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Leo Varadkar TD
Leader, Fine Gael
Telephone: 01-619 4020
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: http://www.twitter.com/@LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Eamon Ryan TD
Leader, Green Party
Tel: 01 618 3894
Email: eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EamonRyanGP/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EamonRyan
Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
Tel: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD
Ivana Bacik TD
Leader, The Labour Party
Tel: (01) 6183136
Email: ivana.bacik@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivanabacik
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bacikivana/
“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; 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
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; ivana.bacik@oireachtas.ie
Watch RTE’s award-winning “Greyhounds Running For Their Lives” documentary
https://youtu.be/ZYTb2qBjlMM