If you’re involved in the sport of greyhound racing, it’s highly likely that like myself, at some point over the past couple of weeks you will have watched the RTE programme on the sport in Ireland.

Pete Harnden

There Is no doubting that the programme was one-sided. It was sensationalised and it was a flagrant attempt at attempting to destroy our great sport without allowing us a fair hearing.

It was akin to placing two professional boxers into the ring and blind folding one of them and for good measure tying his hands behind his back.

A beating was sure to ensue and the result inevitable. However, we cannot be naive enough to suggest that all of the footage was old, that all of the programme was based upon lies and misinformation.

If the sport on either side of the Irish sea is to have any future, then we need to acknowledge the problems created by a small minority, deal with them and leave no stone unturned to ensure that these people are no longer able to cast a shadow over the vast majority of good people involved in greyhound racing.

In Britain I believe we have made huge strides in recent years on welfare. We must never stop trying to make improvements though, we must never take it easy and think we’ve done enough.

Where improvements can be made, they should be. We’re lucky to have an excellent team at the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) that will work as much over time as is needed to ensure that the welfare of our greyhounds is the utmost priority at all times.

There were a few major causes of concern for me with regards the recent RTE programme, most of which have been well aired and cannot be aired enough until the minority involved are eradicated from the sport.

I will deal with just a couple of points which have absolutely no place in the modern world, not just here or in Ireland, but absolutely no place in a civilised world.

The euthanizing of our wonderful greyhounds at knackery yards is simply detestable. Watching this footage left me sick to the bottom of my stomach. How can anybody be they involved in greyhound racing or not, how can anybody live with themselves after allowing a greyhound to be put through such an atrocity and such an appalling end to their life?

I firmly believe the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) will act swiftly to ensure that this appalling practise is outlawed immediately. No matter how small the percentage of people involved, one greyhound to have his or her life ended in this way, with such a lack of dignity, is one too many.

Another major cause of concern for me is any greyhound ending up in countries such as, but not limited to, China.

Welfare standards in countries such as China simply aren’t up to the same standards as they are here in the UK. There is one reason and one reason alone why anybody would send a greyhound to somewhere like China and that is for money.

The people involved in doing so are in a very small minority, there is no doubt about this, however one greyhound being sent to China is one greyhound too many for my liking and for the liking of any right minded individual involved in our sport.

I am pleased and proud to say that the GBGB have barred anybody licensed within our sport from sending any greyhound to China. In my view the government should be stepping in and putting a ban on any dog being sent to that country and I would hope that in the future this is implemented.

In the meantime though we can only do what we can do so a ban by the GBGB is a positive start. Like many I am aware of a small number of breeders and stud keepers in Ireland who seem happy to put money before any concerns about welfare and continue to deem it within their moral compass to send greyhounds to China.

Again I must stress that as a percentage this is a very small number, but whatever the figure, it is one too many and needs stamping out with immediate effect. I hereby call on the IGB to immediately join the GBGB and place a ban upon anybody involved in the sport in Ireland from being involved in the sale of greyhounds to China.

I would also urge them to act severely upon anybody who continues to do so and anybody who attempts to bypass this ban by using third parties.

 

Peter Harnden

GBGB Practitioner Director (Trainers)