The growth in the decline of welfare

 

Rásaíocht Con Éireann(RCE)/Greyhound Racing Ireland(GRI)

welcome a pitiful fine for a welfare case

 involving twelve greyhounds from one owner.

GRI CEO, Ger Dollard, yet again, cites there is a 'priority of maintaining animal welfare at the centre of the industry'  - following the conviction and €1000 fine(with €5,682 costs)of Kieran O'Donnell, Co. Sligo, for welfare breaches involving twelve greyhounds.

The case dates back to GRI welfare inspections in  November/December 2019 where GRI seized the twelve greyhounds, and working in conjunction with the, industry-run, Irish Retired Greyhound Trust, eight were homed. The greyhounds were found in 'extremely poor condition'.

Under the Greyhound Racing Act 2019(still to be implemented)'Conditions of office of members of board' 9(3) show a GRI board member 'ceases to hold office if convicted of an offence involving cruelty to an animal or relating to animal welfare'. A similar call was made, by greyhound welfare/rehoming charities, during the drafting of the 2019 Act to include that greyhound owners/trainers/breeders should be banned following welfare convictions but those calls were rejected - instead just pitiful fines continue under relevant Regulations of the 2011 Act.

  Questions

Slipalong Pearl - last raced May 2019 - continues to be registered as owned by Kieran O'Donnell, Co. Sligo. 

Is this incompetence(again)on GRI's traceability? Did O'Donnell sell Slipalong Pearl and fail to adhere to Welfare Of Greyhounds Act 2011 Transfer of ownership regulations? Does Slipalong Pearl continue to live on the premises of O'Donnell?

Along with these questions for GRI, a further question the public would want to see answered - following yet another announcement from the industry that there is a 'priority of maintaining animal welfare at the centre of the industry' - is, why are welfare inspections declining?

Following IGS showing in March 2021 the decline in welfare inspections for the year 2020, GRI have finally updated their records for 2020. 

2020 shows the industry conducted lowest number of welfare inspections since 2015. Alarmingly, 2021, so far, shows a further, dramatic, decline in welfare inspections. 

From January to March 2020, there were 219 welfare inspections(Jan - 95, Feb - 92 and March - 32).

From January to March 2021, there were 53 welfare inspections(Jan - 19, Feb -19 and March - 15).

While greyhounds continue to be used for racing/breeding/selling during the covid-19 pandemic, the GRI argument that covid-19 has limited the industry being able to carry out welfare inspections - causing inspection declines - is laughable.

December 2020 DAFM Minister, Charlie McConalogue, defending the funding for the industry, told the Dáil there were 7,313 active greyhound owners. GRI show there were 571 welfare inspections for 2016. This would mean that less than eight percent of owners were inspected - a figure that ultimately would show fewer welfare issues for the industry to report.

Similar declines in industry-activity on welfare for greyhounds can be 

seen in the decline of doping tests carried out.

It is clear that welfare is not at the centre of the industry.

Welfare Inspections Decline

 

Greyhound Racing Ireland give more PR on welfare

but yet again such industry PR conflicts

with their own figures.

On 26th March 2021, GRI gave out a statement on a conviction under the Welfare of Greyhounds Act 2011 and, again, claimed that there is a 'priority of maintaining animal welfare at the centre of the industry'.

The statement went on to tell the public that 455 welfare inspections were conducted in 2020 and how the inspection program had been impacted, for 2020, due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The actual GRI report on welfare inspections for 2020 has still not been updated to show the figure of 455 inspections, and as of March 29th 2021 the 2020 report shows the figure of 84 welfare inspections - yet again showing a slackness in transparency from the industry.

The 2020 report of 455 welfare inspections was not just a massive decline from the 615 welfare inspections in 2019 but a decline in general and lowest figure since 2015. Such declines of figures have been seen before, as with the decline in testing for doping. Such figures that continue to question how welfare can be 'at the centre of the industry'.

GRI claim that for 2020 welfare inspections were impacted by Covid-19 restrictions.

On the 12th March 2020, GRI published it's rules/restrictions in regard to Covid-19. The very next day, 13th March 2020,  those rules were ignored by GRI CEO Gerard Dollard as well as Liam Dowling.

The rules/restrictions didn't have an impact on continued breeding of greyhounds - indeed this practice was deemed an essential service.

The rules/restrictions didn't have an impact on the continued sales of greyhounds - such as the sale of TD Jackie Cahill's greyhound Minnies Petrov. TD Jackie Cahill, Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Food and The Marine(who question GRI on such issues as greyhound welfare), owned Minnies Petrov at the time of behind-closed-doors racing, and then sold her despite Covid-19 restrictions.

That the continued sales, breeding and racing of greyhounds

 was deemed essential during Covid-19

 but welfare inspections of greyhounds was impacted by Covid-19 restrictions 

should be of great public concern.

Industry misinformation

 

GRI(Greyhound Racing Ireland)CEO

falls instantly in a recent radio interview 

as misinformation continues within the industry.

Gerard Dollard, CEO of GRI(ex IGB)was recently invited onto NewsTalk to defend the greyhound industry, in another attempt to win waning public support for the industry. Dollard immediately opens his defence with recent coverage of the industry being 'based on misinformation' and that 'in terms of public perception[of the industry]there has been damage done' but he believes that the industry has a 'good story to tell'.

A CEO simply cannot tell the public that misinformation is being used against the industry while the industry itself gives the public misinformation.

One example of misinformation used by the industry is on the injury figures. GRI want the public to believe that injuries are rare. To show this GRI give the public the figures for injuries in 2020 being:

255, with 88 being put to sleep out of 69,029 runners - as shown in a GRI report.

Those 69,029 runners, however, would be made up from the racing pool of approximately 3,600 greyhounds -  as shown in a report Dollard freely emailed to politicians in 2019, in reference to matters raised at a Public Accounts Committee hearing. 

There were not 69,029 individual greyhounds used for racing in Ireland in 2020 but this figure is used by the industry to give the public a false perception/misinformation that racing is safe and injuries/deaths are rare.

Another, concerning, example of misinformation given to the public from the industry is on the issue of the traceability of greyhounds.

The GRI record for a greyhound called IMOKRYOU has recently been updated to say 'rehomed'.

Greyhounds listed on GRI records as 'rehomed' looks great for the public - but, as well as being misinformation, it cannot 100% be relied on that a greyhound listed as rehomed has indeed been rehomed.

It has long been a concern for greyhound advocates on the truth of greyhound traceability. The new GRI traceability scheme continues to relay on the owner/breeder simply filling in a box to say that a greyhound has been rehomed.

As for IMOKRYOU, she wasn't simply rehomed. She was absolutely rescued.

Just months after being used for breeding, IMOKRYOU was taken to the dog pound with instructions not to be homed. It was, thankfully, the dedicated, caring, people from an independent rescue who negotiated the release of IMOKRYOU for homing and not for her to be destroyed.

It was 2018, when IGS first highlighted the abuse IMOKRYOU went through - but now, under the new attempts to gain public trust, GRI have listed her as simply 'rehomed'.

Sadly, IMOKRYOU is not, and will not be, the only 

greyhound to be used by the industry to gain public trust.