Serious breach of the
Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011 ignored.
A limit on breeding, meant to give some protection, for female greyhounds was made law under the Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011 Regulation 11 Restrictions on breeding - A regulation taken to the limit by greyhound breeders.
As shown in the Act regulation, a female greyhound can have no more than 8 litters(6 generally plus 2 more if certified by a vet that there is no risk to the health and welfare of the greyhound. An offence has been committed if a greyhound has had more than 8 litters. Further more, it is unlawful for a 9th litter to be registered, by the Irish Coursing Club, in the Greyhound Stud Book - it is also unlawful for the progeny of any 9th litter to be registered by the ICC.
This regulation has been breached and ignored.
A litter, bred in 2018 by Liam Dowling(a much celebrated figure in the greyhound industry), showed greyhound Paradise Simona having 5 pups listed on the Irish Greyhound Board website - although 6 pups were registered with the ICC.
Paradise Simona, and her pups, are the progeny of an unlawfully bred/registered 9th litter from greyhound Dalcash Diva(a litter briefly highlighted by IGS in 2015).
All greyhound litter reports publicly available on the IGB website curiously became unavailable for nearly 3 weeks following the IGS social-media publication of Liam Dowling's unlawful litter, and an IGS email to the Greyhound Board of Great Britain and the UK Greyhound Trust to call for unlawfully bred/registered greyhounds to be immediately stood down from use in racing and to be made available for adoption. The GBGB never replied to our email, of the 15th July, and continue to allow the use of unlawfully bred/registered greyhound Ballymac Unsub from the Paradise Simona litter. The IGB also allowed the continued use of unlawfully bred/registered greyhound Rockfield Belle from the Paradise Simona litter - IGS did receive a reply from the UK Greyhound Trust and their email reply had also copied-in the GBGB.
On the 21st of July TD Catherine Murphy raised our concerns, with the Dept. Agriculture, Food and the Marine, on the unlawfully bred/registered greyhounds being used on both Irish and English tracks. The IGB and ICC denied any knowledge of a breach of Regulation 11 of the Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011.
On the 4th August greyhound litter reports were once again made available to the public on the IGB website. IGS was then able to research further unlawful breeding
Greyhound Ballymac Floss, bred by Liam Dowling in 2002, had a 9th litter in 2012.
Liam Dowling used Ballymac Floss to breed the maximum of 8 litters allowed, then at aged 10 years old, as if enough hadn't been taken from her, Ballymac Floss had a new owner, Elaine Parker, who used her to breed a 9th litter. Despite this litter seemingly registered in England, reports show that the progeny from this litter were used for racing and further breeding in Ireland.
Ballymac Lana, from Ballymac Floss's 9th litter, has so far been used to breed 4 litters in Limerick and Cork producing greyhounds registered and used for racing in Ireland.
On the 7th July, TD Catherine Murphy raised a question to DAFM on the criteria on Government funding to the Irish greyhound industry for 2019 and 2020. The then DAFM Minister, Barry Cowen, answered that the funding was given under certain conditions - such as the IGB having to meet its obligations to comply with the various greyhound legislations - legislation such as the Restrictions on breeding under the Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011.
To date, for 2020, the IGB have been given €14.7 M of their allocated €16.8M.
Given that greyhounds unlawfully bred and registered were used for racing on tracks in Ireland in 2019 and 2020, and that this serious breach has been ignored, IGS calls on the Government funding to the IGB to be stopped and questioned further.
The unlawful breeding, and blatant disregard for legislation cannot be allowed to become the debacle that was seen with a previous serious breach of breeding regulations - which had been allowed to continue for 9 years.
