ARE IRISH GREYHOUNDS DISAPPEARING INTO THIN AIR?
The data relating to the Irish greyhounds that disappear each year are frightening. At least 10,377 in 2015 according to GRAI (Greyhound Rescue Association Ireland), and that could be a conservative estimate. In 2015 the number of Irish greyhounds euthanised in Irish pounds amounted to 203, a number so relatively low as to beg the question that Irish greyhounds are considered of such low value as to not even be worthy of the dignity of euthanasia.
Faced with these numbers, anyone with the basic ability and will to put two and two together should ask themselves a simple question: what happens to the Irish greyhounds that disappear? Now, even assuming that some of these dogs may be exported – and exportation figures are also a mystery – we’re still not far off from 10,000. So how do 10,000 greyhounds just disappear?
It can only be one of two things: either somebody knows and is not telling, or nobody knows. If somebody knows and is not telling, that means that he/she is keeping the facts hidden from public knowledge and is therefore complicit; if nobody knows it means that nobody wants to know, because otherwise the industry would have to account for it. Obviously we are talking about the Irish Greyhound Board, the authority which runs the greyhound racing industry, and the Irish government, which finances the industry and the IGB with money from tax contributions.
So either they know and are not saying, or they don’t want to know so they don’t have to say. We who don’t know but who are not stupid can only speculate – starting from the obvious fact that nothing physical disappears into thin air – that some are sold to travellers, Irish gypsies, and many end up under the ground or burnt. If anyone can disprove this theory, may he come forward with compelling proof – but we doubt that will happen.
It’s about time that those who control racing, i.e. the Irish government and the IGB, accounted for this too, besides making idle talk about welfare.
By Massimo Greco Translated by Isobel Deeley
Tags: adopt rescue greyhound, adozione greyhound, greyhound racing, Ireland