On the 12th March Taoiseach
Leo Varadkar(Irish Prime Minister)
issued his statement on Covid-19 for Ireland.
But how would the Greyhound industry respond?
Leo referred, in his 12th March speech, to the updated guidelines of 12th March from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - page two of which the ECDC gave advice where social distancing measures should be implemented, such as in the workplace.
The Irish Greyhound Board, on the 12th March, gave a statement that using greyhounds for racing would continue behind closed doors - with 'one person, one dog' admissions only permitted.
Greyhound trainer Liam Dowling celebrates a race-win on the 13th March at Tralee's Kingdom greyhound stadium with a gathered-group photo which includes the IGB's CEO Gerard Dollard.
Racing behind closed doors continued until the 24th March. Despite the IGB's 'one person, one dog' stipulation the IGB race videos, through March, show people continued to group together - such as at the last races on 22nd March at Mullingar.
Racing behind closed doors continued until the 24th March. Despite the IGB's 'one person, one dog' stipulation the IGB race videos, through March, show people continued to group together - such as at the last races on 22nd March at Mullingar.
On 20th April greyhound breeders showed their commitment in continuing to travel throughout Ireland to meet owners travelling with their greyhounds to continue the over-breeding of greyhounds, seeing themselves as an 'essential' service - seemingly falling under the Governments essential services list under Agriculture and Fishing for 'animal production'.
Greyhound traders also continued to travel and transport greyhounds from Ireland to the UK as boasted on the 21st April.
While the trading and breeding of greyhounds continues, rescue centres struggle to meet the everyday-costs to care for the greyhounds used and discarded by the industry.
Despite the industry showing a blatant disregard for the lockdowns/social distancing during a pandemic, the IGB raises it's disappointment with the Government, on 2nd of May, that the use of greyhounds for racing will not resume until the Governments third phase on 28th June.
The IGB asks Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to take into account its' 'ability to run in compliance with Covid-19 protocols' as it has previously 'demonstrated'.
Meanwhile, in the UK, as NHS workers continue to risk their lives with the shortages of PPE
greyhound track promoter, Kevin Boothby boasts on how
And not even during the pandemic of a devastating virus will
the greyhound industries show any sincerity.
**Update 11th June 2020**
The use again of greyhounds for racing has been permitted by the Government - trials resume 8th June and races to resume 15th June, again behind closed doors.
This earlier-than-planned part of the Governments Covid-19 recovery roadmap, was fought for by the likes of Councillor Eileen Lynch and TD Jackie Cahill - both with self-interests in the greyhound industry.
Councillor Lynch wrote an article for The Corkman where she spoke of being "involved in the greyhound industry" all her life, and that the "welfare of greyhounds was first and foremost.." - despite still being listed in the greyhound stud book as the owner of Knockrour Sonic who was exported to Spain, re-named Tenes and was used for racing 111 times in Barcelona. Comments about this from the concerned public were removed.
TD Jackie Cahill, in his fight for a early resumption of greyhound racing, spoke in the That'sFarming of how "the greyhound sector....fully adhered to public health advice and restrictions" in reference to the previous continued racing behind closed doors - despite the failings highlighted and despite a race on the 14th March, in which one of his own greyhounds, Minnies Petrov, was used to race in, showing(again)people gathered at the track side - a race in which another greyhound was injured and did not finish. This raises further concerns of safety for all concerned during the covid pandemic on how an injured greyhound can be retrieved from the track.
In an RTE article in 2019 Cahill said "there can be no circumstances where we can condone the putting down of a healthy dog" - IGS wonders if Cahill can reassure the public on the fate of his greyhound Ballinhow Thomas, who only had one race. In 2013 despite the race result card saying Ballinhow Thomas was outpaced the race video shows clearly he was injured and finished lame.
Further to this, the Irish Greyhound Board and Kingdom Greyhound Stadium published photos of the resumption of trials - the photos show an immediate disregard of the IGB Covid-19 Protocols on the 8th of June and 9th of June.
***UPDATE*** 15th August
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues so does the failures of IGB Covid-19 protocols, such failures as shown on the 8th August and 15th August.
Despite PR from the IGB in the Westmeath Examiner on 13th August, where the IGB CEO wants to assure the public that "Measures introduced to date include a strict one person one dog policy" - as was ignored on the 8th August and even celebrated on the IGB website.
The IGB PR was in response to the midlands lockdown where attendance at the Mullingar track would "not pose an undue threat" as the IGB has a "comprehensive Covid-19 response plan in place to provide for social distancing" - as was ignored at Mullingar(again)on the 15th August.
Indeed the IGB race videos throughout this serious pandemic show many failures of IGB Covid-19 protocol at the various tracks throughout Ireland.
