Sir, – In his review of RTÉ’s programme on the greyhound industry Peter Crawley’s well-written piece defined much of what is wrong in the world of greyhound racing (“When is a dog not a dog? When it’s an Irish greyhound”, June 27th).
Classified as agricultural animals rather than dogs, over 6,000 healthy greyhounds are killed every year simply for being too slow.
Images of the agonising death for the greyhound boiled alive in China will not be easily erased from viewers’ memories.
Notwithstanding the brutality abroad, we also witnessed homemade cruelty in the knackers’ yards where seemingly there is no shortage of dogs to shoot, with special discounts offered depending on numbers.
The obvious fear and distress of the black greyhound pulled into the shed to be killed was pitiful to watch.
Assured of the support and massive funding from successive governments, the greyhound industry over the years has attracted and generally ignored justified criticisms. In the aftermath of this well-researched programme, to quote Peter Crawley “You wonder what reputation anyone involved has left to lose”. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET TWOHIG,
Glounthaune, Co Cork.