NEW FIGURES showing the number of greyhounds put down in areas including Clare and Kerry prove a “significant animal welfare issue”, according to the Minister for the Environment John Gormley.
More than 1,000 of the 10,000- plus stray or unwanted dogs put down in 2008 were greyhounds, annual returns provided to the Department of the Environment by local authorities across the State show.
However, more than 22 per cent of the 1,222 dogs put down in Clare were greyhounds, while in Kerry, greyhounds represented more than 28 per cent of 906 dogs put down. The animals also accounted for higher-than-average percentages in south Tipperary, Galway city and Louth.
“Unfortunately, the figures show a significant animal welfare issue relating to greyhounds. There is a lacuna in regulation of breeding across all dog breeds,” a spokesman for the Minister and Green Party leader said.
“The existing inspection system for greyhounds does not extend to the breeding establishments, nor does it involve the inspection of dogs that aren’t being raced, and that’s where the greyhound welfare problem lies.”
The Minister has faced some opposition to the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill 2009 from Fianna Fáil backbenchers, some of whom have appealed for an exemption from the proposed legislation for greyhound breeders.
The Irish Greyhound Board’s welfare manager Barry Coleman insisted that cases of cruelty were extremely rare and said the industry was already subject to fees and inspections under existing legislation.
“Ninety-nine per cent of our owners are top quality people who care about their animals. They’re often rural people. Sometimes they care for their animals more than themselves.”
Mr Coleman said he had tried to source figures recently but claimed some pounds did not differentiate adequately between breeds of dogs, sometimes classing cross-breeds as greyhounds.
He said the terms of the Bill applied to establishments with six or more breeding bitches, but said hobby breeders could be unlucky with litters, and “all of a sudden the man with the one breeding bitch has become a breeding establishment”.
Mark Beazley of the dog welfare charity Dogs Trust said higher percentages of greyhounds being put down were recorded in certain areas, “because traditionally they would have been known as areas where greyhound breeding would have taken place”.
Greyhounds accounted for 107 of the 500 dogs put down in south Tipperary; in Louth, 40 greyhounds out of 132 dogs were put down, and in Galway city, 74 greyhounds of of 191 dogs were put down. In Clare, 273 greyhounds were put down and 259 were put down in Kerry.
