Greyhound racing under renewed scrutiny in Ireland

Politicians across the 32 counties—the six counties of north Ireland plus the remaining counties of the Republic of Ireland—have called on governments North and South to follow the decision to ban greyhound racing by Scotland and Wales last week.

Belfast City councillor Anthony Flynn, representing the Green Party, denounced what he described as:

an unregulated industry operating without transparency or accountability.

He continued:

There is no dedicated legislation governing greyhound racing here. There is no official data on injuries or deaths and no proper oversight from DAERA [Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs]. We know from other jurisdictions that greyhounds are injured and killed on tracks every year. There is no reason to believe Northern Ireland is any different.

Unlike the Six Counties, Greyhound Racing Ireland (GRI) in the South does keep track of its own brutality, at least partially. The campaign group Ban Blood Sports cites GRI’s figures in which they record that:

…since 2014, at least 4,040 greyhounds suffered injuries and 1,593 were killed.

Track deaths and injuries are commonplace, with greyhounds suffering horrific wounds through falls and collisions during races. Many are euthanised after sustaining these wounds. Moreover, Ban Blood Sports highlights that:

The Greyhound Racing Ireland figures are based on “reported” injuries and deaths, suggesting that the actual number could be even higher. They do not include the greyhounds injured at tracks and later killed elsewhere, or the thousands of greyhounds who are killed every year because they are not fast enough to win races.

A 2019 RTE documentary—Greyhounds Running for Their Lives—revealed the scale of mass murder conducted by the industry. It is likely thousands of greyhounds are slaughtered every year due to being judged insufficiently competitive. All this for so-called ‘sport’, and to boost another shameful industry, the gambling sector.

The government in Dublin has ploughed a staggering €386,806,146 in public money since 2021 into the murderous greyhound racing business. The figure for 2026 is €19.82 million. People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger pointed out that only €6 million had been set aside for animal welfare charities.

She said:

Racing at speed on oval tracks is dangerous for dogs in extreme weather. They have poor diet, very little enrichment in their lives and very little traceability.

It is not widely supported in our society any more because people have seen the dangers of having a racing industry that is just propped up by the State and is cruel for the animals involved.

She also cited Ireland’s status as “a complete and utter outlier” in a world where the cruel practice is only legal and active in a few countries. Unsurprisingly, it is the Anglophone world showing its customary barbarism, with England, Ireland, Australia and the United States being the outliers in question.

Ireland should be especially ashamed in joining these colonial nations in the torture of animals for entertainment. It does, however, have form in this regard, still allowing similarly cruel sports like fox hunting and hare coursing.

Seemingly content to maintain that disgraceful status, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said:

I do not intend to ban greyhound racing here.

He lamented what he called Coppinger’s:

…dreadful slight on the thousands of people who work in our greyhound racing industry and who love the dogs and care for them greatly.

That’s lovely to hear, but the verifiable facts of mass greyhound murder matter a great deal more than Heydon’s unverifiable psychic insights into the thoughts of workers in a horribly cruel and exploitative industry.

Similarly in the North, the lobby group Greyhound Racing Constituents NI seems upbeat about avoiding a ban. They boasted about their ability to slither into the corridors of power to get their way, saying:

We have been laying the ground work with decision-makers at Stormont over the last year regarding this issue.

If you want to make a small contribution to undermining this smugness and potential corruption, the Green Party has a petition calling for a racing ban.

Further such efforts will be required to match the achievements of Scotland and Wales. Scottish MSPs voted in favour a ban on March 18, bringing in the Prohibition of Greyhound Racing (Scotland) Bill that:

…makes it an offence to allow a greyhound to compete on an oval racetrack in Scotland, with a maximum prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to £20,000.

In Wales the previous day, Senedd members also brought in a ban. However, Llyr Gruffydd of Plaid Cymru criticised the legislation for not being comprehensive enough, saying it:

…doesn’t stop the breeding of greyhounds in Wales for racing. It doesn’t stop the training of greyhounds in Wales. For racing, dogs can still be kept in Wales, raced in England.

Despite this, the ban is still facing a legal challenge from the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, which seem intent on keeping Britain generations behind the times in maintaining cruel practices that treat sentient creatures as mere objects for human entertainment.

Featured image via Rásaíocht Con Eireann