*This letter was submitted to IrishCentral by Patrick Baga, Director of Advocacy and Research at the non-profit, GREY2K USA Worldwide, the largest greyhound protection organization in the world.
Once home to upwards of 70 dog tracks, the United States is now down to just two, and on the cusp of ending greyhound racing entirely. The Greyhound Protection Act, a bill that ends dog racing across the US, was recently added to the Farm Bill, a must-pass piece of legislation in Congress.
New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales have or will be phasing out the practice this year, and Tasmania, Australia will be holding a vote in April.
Greyhound racing is the defining global animal welfare issue of our times, and yet Ireland, in the North and the South, remains a wild west for greyhounds.
A 2019 exposé in the Republic revealed 6,000 greyhounds were killed each year for not being fast enough, and the latest data shows 70% of greyhounds born in 2021 are dead or unaccounted for.
2024 polling carried out by Norstat for GREY2K USA Worldwide demonstrated 70% of voters want the Dáil to stop subsidizing greyhound racing, and a majority want to phase it out altogether.
The North is even more of a greyhound black hole. It has the regrettable distinction of being home to the only two commercial dog tracks in the entire world that do not report injury and death data, and the tracks are not regulated by the Department of Agriculture in the North, but rather the Irish Coursing Club in Co Tipperary. Adoption prospects for Northern Irish hounds are also entirely unclear and unmonitored.
As the rest of the world moves on from greyhound racing, I hope Ireland chooses to climb aboard. During turbulent times, this is one issue where the global community is in alignment: extending compassion to, instead of placing a bet upon and then discarding, man’s best friend.