Greyhound racing is built on horrendous cruelty to animals

Kampanya güncellemesiIrish Government: Stop Giving Millions of Euro to Cruel Greyhound RacingGreyhound racing is built on horrendous cruelty to animals

Irish Council Against Blood SportsMullingar, İrlanda

9 Mar 2025

Paul Murphy TD has condemned greyhound racing as an industry "built on horrendous cruelty to animals". Speaking on the Today Show on RTE Radio 1 (6 March 2025), the People Before Profit politician renewed his calls for a ban on greyhound racing.

"This industry is built on horrendous cruelty to animals," he told listeners. "4% of dogs involved in racing died in the races last year. All the race tracks have freezers for the dog carcasses to go in."

He went on to highlight the massive government grants that are keeping the dying greyhound industry afloat:

"This is a cruel industry that we are giving very significant public money to - €367 million of public funds since 2001 has gone to the greyhound racing industry, [including] €20 million for 2025. This compares extremely favourably to all other sports. Sport Ireland, Swim Ireland, FAI, GAA between them, on an annual basis, they would get core funding of about €30 million. And yet we are giving €20 million to this cruel industry every single year."

Stressing that "the public, urban and rural, is very, very clearly opposed to the giving of this public money", he pointed to a recent Norstat poll which showed that 70% want the funding stopped.

Reacting to a ridiculous claim by former Fianna Fail TD and greyhound track director Jackie Cahill that greyhound racing supports thousands of jobs, Deputy Murphy commented that "the figures that are cited in terms of the number of people in the industry are inflated".

"Those figures include hundreds of jobs involved in the manufacturing and selling of [all] dog food," he stated. "It includes people who just work in bookies, who would still work in bookies if the greyhound industry doesn't exist. It includes vets who would still work even if the greyhound industry didn't exist."

Show presenter Claire Byrne asked if he would still be calling for a ban if it was possible for animal welfare to be improved.

Deputy Murphy responded: "I don't see the evidence that it can be or will be. Jackie [Cahill] has said we've made loads of improvements but we've had the worst fatalities ever last year so these improvements don't seem to be having an impact. The problem is inherent - this is an industry absolutely related to the gambling industry - it exists only for that purpose - and the point is to get a dog to run as fast as possible and that means there's going to be injuries as a result from that. It also means you're going to have massive overbreeding of dogs that are effectively useless from the point of view of the industry, with nowhere really for these dogs to go - that's what's responsible then for the thousands of them just being killed on a yearly basis. I don't think we need to have this industry, based on the exploitation and cruelty to animals."

SEE ALSO:

Raced to death: 202 greyhounds killed at races in Ireland in 2024

https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2025/02/18/raced-to-death-202-greyhounds-killed-at-races-in-ireland-in-2024/

Greyhound injuries and deaths at Irish greyhound tracks

https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/greyhound-injuries-and-deaths-at-irish-greyhound-tracks/

Video: Injuries and deaths at races in Ireland in 2024

https://youtu.be/vHAfODwqyRs

ACTION ALERT

Don’t go greyhound racing. Since 2001, Greyhound Racing Ireland has received €366,986,146 in state funding, including €18.2 million for 2023, €19 million for 2024 and €19.82 million for 2025. This is unacceptable and must be stopped. Tell the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein to stop supporting the funding and back a ban on this dog-killing gambling activity.

Micheál Martin TD

Leader, Fianna Fail

Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie

Tel: 01 619 4000

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/

X: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD

Simon Harris TD

Leader, Fine Gael

Telephone: 01 281 3727

Email: simon.harris@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie

X: http://www.twitter.com/SimonHarrisTD

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeputySimonHarris