Sir, – Every year, thousands of young, healthy dogs are killed – because they can’t run fast enough to make it on to the track. Thousands more are killed each year because they have outlived their usefulness on the track. Then there are the unfortunates exported to the hell-hole racetracks in Macau and Pakistan. And that’s not to mention the doping of dogs, or the use of other animals to train greyhounds in the brutal practice known as “blooding”.
Yet despite all the cruelty and suffering, successive Irish governments continue to pump millions of euro of Irish taxpayers’ money into an industry which, without State subvention, would have long since been consigned to the dustbin of history. Ireland prides itself on being a nation of dog-lovers. It is time now for all such people to rise up and demand an end to the public funding of greyhound racing. – Yours, etc,
NUALA DONLON,
Lanesborough,
Co Longford.