Why Irish Racers?

In the United States, Greyhound racing is winding down. The state of Florida recently voted to outlaw racing, and all tracks in that state will cease operation by the beginning of 2021. Once that happens, Greyhound racing will only be legal in 5 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Texas and West Virginia. There is currently legislation being proposed in WV that would effectively end racing in that state as well, and Arkansas is phasing out its track and will finish in 2022.

The United States currently is in the fortunate position of having more people who want to adopt ex-racing Greyhounds than there are available ex-racing Greyhounds for adoption. Of course there are still unregistered Greyhounds, Lurchers, Staghounds and other Sighthounds in need who are not directly part of the Greyhound racing industry in the USA. However, the end of racing in this country has given adoption groups like ours the ability to expand and help Greyhounds worldwide.

Ireland’s racing industry right now is much like the US’s industry was 25 years ago. The country is saturated with Greyhound tracks, and there are more dogs coming off these tracks and farms than can be absorbed in Ireland. Ireland is approximately the size of Indiana in land, and has approximately the same population as Minnesota. Ireland has 15 currently operating greyhound tracks as of 2020. The majority of Greyhounds racing in Ireland are bred in-country. In 2013 for example, there were 2520 litters registered with the Irish Greyhound studbook. In 2018 the amount bet by gamblers at IGB licensed tracks was €23.7 million.

On June 26, 2019, RTÉ News aired a program entitled RTÉ Investigates: Greyhounds Running For Their Lives. The investigation revealed that nearly 6,000 Irish greyhounds are killed each year. In addition, according to an Irish Greyhound Board-commissioned report that was completed in 2017, the Irish greyhound industry breeds 1,000% more puppies than it needs to conduct racing. The program also highlighted the merciless killing of unwanted greyhounds at Irish knackeries or slaughterhouses, drugging dogs to fix races, track injuries and deaths.

Greyhounds are a very misunderstood breed in Ireland due to their perception as a working dog and not a pet. Local rescues estimate only approximately 1000 Greyhounds find retirement homes within Ireland each year. There is a huge discrepancy between the numbers of dogs bred versus those currently racing or rehomed. Irish-bred Greyhounds are sold to other countries for racing and breeding, many with dubious or zero animal welfare laws (such as Spain, Portugal and Pakistan), and more recently it has come to light that Irish-bred Greyhounds are being sold to China, where the offspring of these racing dogs will end up in the dog meat trade if they are not useful for racing.

MNGR is pleased to be able to help some of these Greyhounds, who come to us by way of our wonderful UK-based adoption partners Birmingham Greyhound Protection and PAWS Animal Rescue Ireland.