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A football club in County Cork is being urged to say NO to greyhound track fundraising.
Mourneabbey Ladies Football Club, which has organised a fundraiser at Curraheen Park track this month, has been told about the animal cruelty inherent in greyhound racing, with dogs injured, blooded, mutilated, doped, dumped and killed.
"Greyhounds suffer and die at Curraheen Park - 190 greyhounds suffered injuries there and 75 were killed by a track vet over the past eight years alone," we stated in an appeal to the club. "Among the victims was a dog who died of a “suspected heart attack”. Last year, 17 greyhounds were injured there and 7 killed. Among the injuries were fractured hock/leg, shoulder/wrist injury and skin wound."
At races around Ireland since 2014, at least 3,050 greyhounds suffered injuries and 1,060 died or were killed. Many more greyhounds are killed behind the scenes every year because they are not fast enough to win races.
RTE’s award-winning “Greyhounds running for their lives” documentary revealed that around 6,000 greyhounds are culled annually. It included shocking footage of dogs being delivered to a knackery where they were shot in the head and dumped in a skip. One shot dog was seen writhing on the ground in agony as his merciless owner drove away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYTb2qBjlMM
A damning report which Greyhound Racing Ireland attempted to hide, 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”.
More and more animal welfare charities are pushing for an end to greyhound racing due to all the suffering and death. They include the RSPCA, Dogs Trust UK, Blue Cross and Woodgreen Pets. The League Against Cruel Sports and Scottish SPCA are also calling for greyhound racing to be banned. Here in Ireland, Dogs Trust has also announced that it wants to see greyhound racing ended as soon as possible. The CEO of the ISPCA, meanwhile, has stated that the group “supports a winding down of greyhound racing in Ireland”.
It is unfortunate that while sports clubs are forced to fundraise, greyhound racing automatically receives millions of euros of taxpayers' money every year. Since 2001, the gambling activity has been granted over a quarter of a Billion euros, including €19.2 million for 2021, €17.6 million for 2022 and €18.2 million for 2023. We are calling on the government to stop this state funding and redirect the money to charities, sports clubs, etc crying out for support. Greyhound Racing Ireland has repeatedly cited fundraising at tracks as a justification for the continued government grants.
ACTION ALERT
Join us in our appeal to Mourneabbey Ladies Football Club to show compassion, reject greyhound racing and choose a form of fundraising which does not involve the exploitation of animals.
Email: mourneabbeyladies.pro@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MourneabbeyLadiesFootballClub
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MourneabbeyLFC