China

Chinese Set To Take Away Irish Dogs

To everyone who reads this
please consider emailing the organisations below asking them
to become involved in this vital campaign to protect the Irish greyhound
as once again they are being exploited for greed
Please ask them do everything within their power
to help stop this madness before its too late.

Please email these animal protection groups ASAP
Dogs Trust
League Against Cruel Sports
PETA
W.S.P.A.
VIVA!
R.S.P.C.A.

'Dogs Trust'- clarissa.baldwin@dogstrust.org.uk
'League Against Cruel Sports'- info@league.org.uk
'PETA'- info@peta.org
'WSPA'- wspa1@mailuk.custhelp.com
'VIVA!- info@viva.org.uk
'R.S.P.C.A.'- Enqserv@rspca.org.uk

SAY NO TO IRISH GREYHOUNDS BEING SENT TO CHINA
WE ALL KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THEM!

Please see the Sunday Times article below from the UK. We now need all our supporters globally to please write to the I.G.B. (Irish Greyhound Board), the Irish Department of Agriculture and the I.S.P.C.A (Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to vehemently protest about this immediately!
Please remember it is imperative that all correspondence is kept polite.

Please email the following people below to urge them to stop this HORRIFIC idea immediately, the fate of many Greyhounds lay in the hands of the Irish Greyhound Board and the authorities that allow this to go ahead.
THIS MUST BE STOPPED NOW! We cannot emphasize how concerned we are to the fate of these poor dogs! If you wish to copy the appalling photo at http://tinyurl.com/China-meat-market (picture taken of heads of slaughtered
greyhounds at a Chinese meat market) please do so to make your point. Thank you

Barry Coleman (head of Greyhound welfare at the Irish Greyhound Board)- barry.coleman@igb.ie
Irish Greyhound Board public relations dept- pr@igb.ie
I.S.P.C.A. -(The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) - info@ispca.ie
Department of Agriculture in Ireland- info@agriculture.gov.ie

Many thanks for your support

SUNDAY TIMES ARTICLE FEBRUARY 27TH 2011 (UK)

Chinese set to take away Irish dogs
But welfare groups are furious at plans to export greyhounds claiming that animals too slow to win races are routinely slaughtered and even eaten
John Mooney Published: 27 February 2011
Campaigners fear that racing animals will suffer in China

And they're off ... Bord na gCon, the Irish greyhound board, wants to export dogs to China as part of an international expansion that could result in it operating racing stadiums there.
The move is opposed by Irish animal welfare groups, which say other countries refuse to sell greyhounds to China. Dogs too slow to win races are routinely slaughtered and even eaten, they claim.
Attempts have been made to improve the image of greyhound racing but the welfare of retired dogs continues to be a concern. It has been raised by Joanna Lumley, the actress, and Richard Wilson, of One Foot in the Grave.
Sharon Ní Bheoláin, the RTE newsreader, and other public figures have also campaigned about the welfare of the racing dogs.
Bord na gCon says Chinese officials visited Dublin this month to see how the Irish greyhound-racing industry is run and regulated. A spokesman said the board informed the Department of Agriculture, which regulates the transport of greyhounds, about its expansion plans.
"As with any country we do not have any influence on the welfare standards adopted in other countries, and these matters are more appropriately dealt with by the country's own legislative system," the spokesman said. The export of greyhounds was a matter for individuals and Bord na gCon, said the department. "The board has informed us that they are exploring the possibility of assisting with the establishment of greyhound racing in
China," it said. Ireland exports greyhounds to America, mainland Europe, Australia and Pakistan, but animal-welfare societies want trading with China to be prohibited. Orla Aungier, of the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said China had a reputation for the ill-treatment of wild and domestic animals. "A number of countries which export greyhounds to China are already under pressure to stop because dogs that do not race well are routinely killed," she said. "If Irish greyhounds are sent to China it would be almost impossible to monitor their welfare. We are urging Bord na gCon to reconsider their plans and to think about how devastating this move will be for the welfare of Irish greyhounds." China is the main source of the 2m cats and dogs killed annually for their fur, according to the Humane Society of the United States. The reputation of the Irish greyhound racing industry was tarnished in the 1990s when images of starving and ill-treated dogs exported to Spain and Italy appeared in the media. The Irish authorities stopped supporting the Spanish trade. Ní Bheoláin has urged greyhound breeders to think twice about sending dogs to China. "I'd be extremely fearful of condemning any Irish animal to an existence where their basic welfare requirements are routinely ignored. Economic factors aside, we cannot as a civilised nation be seen to trade in cruelty," she said. Ireland, as one of the world's biggest exporters of greyhounds, must " safeguard our reputation and start to set standards," she added.
Greyhound racing is worth 500m Euros a year to the Irish economy, according to Bord na gCon. Greyhound exports are valued at 40m Euros a year. Animal welfare groups have long criticised the practice of destroying healthy dogs when too old to race. When a greyhound reaches three to five years, it is considered too slow. Greyhounds have also been destroyed after being injured while racing. Snip Nua, a black dog part-owned by Dara Ó Briain, the comedian, injured herself in a collision with another greyhound.
Snip Nua formally known as Ballymac Vanessa starred in Three Men Go To Ireland, a television series with Ó Briain, Rory McGrath and Griff Rhys Jones, chances are her injuries would have healed but because she couldn't make any money, the easy and less expensive option was to have her PTS.

If you can help spread the word on this awful practice drop a line to the names above or join our Facebook campaign and hopefully this will be stopped before it goes any further.

Many thanks

Sam