Dungarvan Animal Matters and Welfare Information

12/11/2026

Oh dear!

GRI, the government specifically the department of agriculture is taking a hammering! And rightly so.

Greyhound racing in Ireland continues to exist SOLELY because the government is using tax payers money to keep it on life support.

The industry (though it is not) uses 10m of the 20m it gets from the Irish tax payer to pay out prize money to owners and trainers.

It’s beyond me why there’s no huge public outrage about this abuse of tax payers money!!!

Pensioners got an insulting increase, despite working for 50 years and paying taxes that made this country. Children have no homes. Children await life changing surgeries but the government favours prize money to greyhound owners and trainers above the most vulnerable. WTF is wrong with people? Where’s the outrage, outcry, where’s the media coverage?? 10 million euro is not a small amount of money. How many surgeries for kids with scoliosis would that 10 million benefit?

The department of agriculture is defending the indefensible. The ceo of GRI wants us to use the term pts ie ‘put to sleep’. He then mentioned the word euthanasia. Euthanasia is something carried out to alleviate suffering where there is no treatment possible. It’s NOT a term used for killing for convenience.

12/11/2026

Of note. The CEO of GRI is quite specific about racing greyhounds, as in while racing. This is important because the racing pool is relatively small. GRI, to the best of my understanding, is only concerned with/about greyhounds activity within the racing pool or no longer racing. It, again to the best of my knowledge, takes no responsibility whatsoever for greyhounds specifically bred for racing yet never actually race. These dogs, deemed unsuitable for racing are deemed as such because they don’t run fast enough, are too nervy etc etc and are, as per GRI wording ‘not economically viable’ ie not worth feeding. These dogs never enter the racing pool.

What we need to know is how many greyhounds specifically bred for racing, that both race and don’t race are killed every year.

GRI claims that it’s unable to produce exact numbers of greyhounds bred annually, and as such it’s allowed to get away with an average figure per litter of 6 pups. Anyone who knows anything about greyhounds knows that they can produce between 9-12 pups per litter routinely. This claim is false. All greyhound litters must be registered with the ICC (Irish Coursing Club), and every litter registered must provide the ICC with the male/female ratio of each litter. Ergo, there absolutely exists a precise figure of how many greyhound pups are bred each year.

There are, without doubt, likely thousands more greyhounds being killed in this country than is being admitted.

The government is equally complicit in fudging the numbers. It has allowed GRI (IGB) to spout numbers for decades that, when eventually questioned, ie direct employment figures, were like magic, reduced from 10k to 4k. I’d like to see GRI produce evidence that 4k people are DIRECTLY employed - not agency staff, not employees in dog food manufacturing, not the ESB, not petrol station employees, etc but directly employed on a full time basis.

Paul Murphy TD

12/11/2026

You really need to question the mentality of anyone who is, in any way, remotely entertained by hare coursing.

What is the ‘kick’, what forms the ‘pleasure’ watching a small creature being terrified and terrorised by two (equally innocent) dogs?

Is it a form of psychopathy? A form of zoosadism? Or is it simply pure evil? Perhaps a mix of all? Who knows, because normal people simply don’t understand.

There is, obviously, some sort of primitive mentality involved.

Meanwhile, the Irish government is currently trying to impress upon other Eu members how civilised Ireland is, how progressive blah, blah, blah - all whilst a minority of Irish society continues to dance to the tunes of banjos…

Hares running for their lives again TOMORROW, Friday, at Waterford / Cappoquin and Westport / Dungannon / Co. Cavan coursing meetings. The Westport / Dungannon / Cavan coursing meet takes place at Raharney in County Westmeath and will accommodate hare coursers from Northern Ireland where the bloodsport is illegal.

The 3-day animal cruelty events shamefully continue on Saturday and Sunday.

Hares will also be terrorised by dogs on Saturday and Sunday at Ardpatrick & Kilfinane and Ballyduff coursing meetings.

The persecution of Irish Hares continues thanks to licences shamefully issued by Heritage Minister James Browne, Nature Minister Christopher O'Sullivan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

ACTION ALERT

HELP THE HARES: Urgently contact Ministers James Browne and Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O'Sullivan. Tell them to withdraw the 2026-27 hare coursing licences and remove the Irish Hare from the Open Seasons Order.

Heritage Minister James Browne (Fianna Fail, Wexford)
Tel: (01) 618 3094
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.browne.enniscorthy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbrownetd/?hl=en
X: https://x.com/jamesbrownetd

Christopher O’Sullivan TD (Fianna Fail, Cork South West)
Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity
Tel: (01) 618 3095 or 023 88 11011
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopher.osullivan.716
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopher_o_sullivan_td
X: https://twitter.com/COSullivanTD

Watch our campaign videos

The suffering of hares during 2025-26 coursing season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jN3OMM7_UY

Bill to ban hare coursing shamefully rejected - 24 in favour, 125 against
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMSh_T5l6i0

12/11/2026

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive…

I wonder, how many of those alleged attendees were made up of trainers, owners, entourage, friends and bookies? Any chance of a breakdown of PAYING attendees Martin Heydon? Or does GRI get to refuse to supply those figures?
It’s amazing how these state/semi state, tax payer funded entities get to dictate what they will, or will not divulge. Who provided them with that power?

Meanwhile, rescues that have to beg on the streets to help animals, get pathetic government funding. Worse, they have to practically tell the DAFM what they eat for breakfast every morning, provide evidence of any and all VOM drugs used on their animals, and account for every single cent spent - even if it’s not money provided by the DAFM.

Return to the greyhound racing industry. No such thing as having to prove expenditure. No such thing as, when dogs test positive for various POM or VOM drugs, providing a veterinary rx. No one asks how the dog tested positive for Vi**ra, NSAIDs, steroids or even co***ne. No searches of greyhound racing kennels by the DAFM for illegally held POM/VOM drugs. Nope. Just pay a small fine, and don’t get caught again lads.

The government is providing money to its cronies, buddies or peers and using tax payers money to do it.

European Parliament

12/11/2026

Senator Chris Andrews today criticised the lack of transparency and accountability expected of the Greyhound Racing Ireland by the Government, noting a recent Parliamentary Budget Office report on the lack of economic justification for continued state funding for the industry....

12/11/2026

Dear God! Where’s Spitting Image when you need it…?

12/11/2026

8,414 racing greyhounds died in Ireland over a four year period, the Public Accounts Committee has today been told https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2026/1112/1598974-pac-greyhound-industry Join calls on the Irish Government to finally ban cruel, dog-killing greyhound racing

ACTION ALERT

Urge the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein to ban greyhound racing in Ireland.

Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Tel: 01 619 4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
X: http://www.twitter.com/

Simon Harris TD
Leader, Fine Gael
Tel: 01 281 3727
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
X: http://www.twitter.com/SimonHarrisTD
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DeputySimonHarris

Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
Tel: (01) 727 7102
Email: [email protected]
X: https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD

12/11/2026

13 thousand greyhounds killed since 2021 - well that’s the figure being admitted to anyway.

I’m not if that figure applies solely to greyhounds that entered the racing pool, or if it applies to all greyhounds killed whether they actually raced or not.
Greyhound Awareness Cork?

So there we have it, all admitted by GRI itself. No point now for the greyhound racing fraternity to make the usual claims that ‘it’s all lies’.
💯 healthy dogs killed because they don’t run fast enough, have no chase drive, are too nervy or too silly. Greyhounds killed for 💯 treatable injuries both during schooling and trackside.

Greyhound racing exists on over breeding and killing - all paid for by the tax payer.

Tim Lucey, chief executive of Greyhound Racing Ireland (GRI), did acknowledge that at least 13,000 racing animals died over a five-year period from 2021 onwards

12/11/2026

He’s right, this nasty dog killing business has nothing to do with ‘rural’ Ireland at all. That old chestnut excuse has long since passed its use by date.

These politicians use the ‘rural’ Ireland excuse for hare coursing and fox hunting too. How dare these people tar everyone living outside a city or town with this brush! It gives the overall impression that rural Ireland, known as the countryside in most places, has nothing else to do except run around killing animals for entertainment.

The minister needs a new script writer.