RTE Investigates programme on greyhound racing industry

There's plenty of caring owners out there but also lots of people who only care about the money and treat the dogs like a commodity. My issue isn't so much with the racing as with the governing body allowing this kind of treatment to continue. You'll always get soulless chancers attracted to anything where money can be made. So far they don't seem to be showing any appetite for addressing it. It always feels like a "everything is fine now leave us alone" type response

Rescues get almost nothing in funding. This was already covered in this thread but you're back again trying to pretend like the greyhound industry is just the poor misunderstood victim in all this. Subsidised neutering is a joke. The levy from gambling that funds the GRI would be far better spent on animal welfare and gambling addiction support.

It's people like yourself that make me think the industry can never be reformed and is rotten to the core. It's all about ye being the poor victims.

It can't clean house. It's a victim of 'regulatory capture' like so many Irish institutions (here's looking at you, HSE.) If the people working for the institution have to clean it up, there's no incentive.

Oh, and the subsidy is now closer to $20m. Hadn't read the 2020 annual report, sad to see the "industry" needed more $$ to keep afloat.

Yet it's all those animal rescue people that are apparently making bank from government assistance. They hide it well that's all I'll say. Any of the ones I know of are constantly asking for basics like old bedding and the staff appear to be living on the poverty line. Most of them make massive sacrifices in their lives and do whatever they can to help any animal in need. Certain people trying to make it look like they're the ones getting massive amounts of money in order to take the spotlight off their own industry should be ashamed of themselves. Specially when their industry has contributed to the need for a lot of them to exist in the first place.

My neighbour is the most caring greyhound owner/trainer you could meet, however he openly told me that he has shot several of his greyhounds after they've broken their legs while racing. He wouldn't even pay to have them euthanised. The industry as a whole needs to end.

Ah now in fairness pet dogs in Ireland are treated appallingly, worse on average than racing greyhounds.

Caring? Seriously? How would you recognize one that isn't? Your neighbor's a monster, a dog'll live on 3 legs just fine, and euthanasia is far more merciful than shooting, ffs, the poor animal is stunned and bleeds out. Someone that shoots animals they purportedly care about is a monster. I'd be calling the Guards if I had evidence.

Psychopaths are masters at making you feel things that aren't true. That's where this neighbor of yours excels.

And since then, in 2020 with the 'cover' of the pandemic, GRI's just quietly upped the amount they get from the government. Nothing will change, whole sport including coursing just needs to end. Ireland tolerates amazing amounts of criminality.

Try getting an animal cruelty charge against someone mistreating a dog in Ireland. You'll find out quickly how useless the dog wardens are, and the guards even less so. The prevailing attitude is always "Don't make waves" "Anything for a quiet life" "Shur and you'll be grand." Dog wardens in the UK and US have arrest powers. Here in Ireland, they need YOU to swear out a complaint to the guards.

Loathsome. Innocent greyhounds raised for breeding purposes only with their pups sold off wherever. I'd hoped Brexit would've put an end to Greyhound export to the UK, but so far, not yet.

I live in a rural region. Most of the farmers take excellent care of their dogs.

The problem ones we've known, fall into the 'too old to be farming would you give it up ffs' gaga/nearly senile types who shouldn't own a guppy let alone a dog. The younger farmers aren't the same when it comes to their dogs.

Farmers in the UK don't do this - it's not a 'farmer' thing. Maybe it's an Irish farmer thing, but calling some neighbor caring who has shot 5 of his own dogs is nuts. That's not caring, it's monstrous and the neighbor should be shunned.

I really appreciate the perspective.

Have you noticed the 'pro-racing' types here always say the bad apples are rarities? I don't think they are, either. I think treating the dogs as commodities is absolutely commonplace, and the bleating from the GRI about how they're squandering the money they get on 'programmes' like chipping and record keeping is just deflection. The average breeder only cares about the money, dog welfare is balanced with expense. It's how they make their money, which I wouldn't be surprised isn't largely squandered on gambling on dogs, including their own.

Your neighbor's a dangerous person. You only know of 5 dogs - my guess is he has a long history of doing this. And, it's a crying shame that there''s no freedom of speech in Ireland and that the dog warden lacks investigatory and arrest powers. My own experience of reporting a dog attack (on me, bit me good, took a doctor's visit and antibiotics to clean up the mess) was that reporting the attack to the Warden, then the Guards, resulted in the neighbor in question somehow magically obtaining my name, phone number and home address. He paid us a visit while we weren't home, called me on the phone later (and was duly told off), then some of his misbegotten offspring confronted me on the road about it. I didn't back down though, continued the followup with the Guards and eventually the 'old gaga farmer' had to restrain his dog and muzzle it, for what all that was worth. The dog isn't a greyhound.

When the Guard called to follow up, she had no idea how the farmer had my personal information. Considering my last name is extremely unusual in Ireland, I expect she was lying. I didn't quite tell her so, her being a guard and all, but we didn't end the conversation in a friendly way and I think I made her a bit nervous wondering out loud how he could've gotten my name and phone number so readily given only the Guards and the Dog Warden had it.

I'd go to the guards if you have proof of this horrid mans behaviour. I'm sure the neighbors actually have plenty they don't like about him that'd come out if he got in trouble due to his behaviour to his greyhounds. No one in the greyhound industry would lift a finger - imagine, the GRI funding investigation into the treatment of greyhounds by their owners. I mean, how did these 5 greyhounds, all duly chipped and registered like we hear the GRI is doing, suddenly died without any followup? Oh that's right...just a few bad apples.

A farmer came into my vet having run over his own Collie. The Vet performed emergency surgery & called the farmer to say that the dog had survived. They explained that they had to amputate a leg but the dog would make full recovery. The farmer said that a three legged dog was no good to him & told the Vet to keep it. Luckily it wasn't a Greyhound.

Sigh. Deja Vu all over again. This debate's happened. Greyhound industry advocates like Maryanne84 won't change their minds.

So you would be more in favour of coursing then?