Greyhound Racing

Ireland… Beautiful country, friendly and lovely people and yet terrible events happening behind the greyhound racing industry. I didn’t know about this until last Saturday, when I arrived at Shelbourne Greyhound Stadium to watch greyhound races.

A bunch of people at the stadium entrance were distributing leaflets about horrific things happening in this industry. I read the leaflet, check the website mentioned on the leaflet and I was shocked.

At least 40,000 greyhounds are bred every year in Ireland and UK. Similar number are ‘disposed of’ annually by the greyhound racing industry. Thousands of greyhound pups are put to death before the age of 12 months because they fail to reach racing standards.

Greyhounds running on Irish tracks sustain thousands of injuries every year and 10% of dogs racing are already injured.
More than 10,000 greyhounds retire from racing in Ireland every year, at an average of just 2 – 3 years old, either because of injury or because they are no longer considered good enough to race. Very few of these dogs manage to find good homes. Hardly surprising considering up to 20,000 other breed dogs are killed every year in Ireland due to over-breeding, no kennel spaces and the fact that no homes being available.

Many ex-racing greyhounds are simply abandoned, many have been found in deplorable condition and some with their ears cut or burned off to avoid identification. Others are killed by extremely cruel methods such us beating, drowning and poisoning because some owners are not prepared to pay the cost of having them killed by vet.

Everybody can help to stop this cruelty, simply not attending and betting on greyhound racing. The greyhound racing was already abolished in 6 states in the USA. We can help to prevent this massive suffering and slaughter by spreading the word and let the world know what is happening in the greyhound industry.

If you want to help, have a look at Greyhound action to find out how.