EDITOR – What great news from New Zealand that greyhound racing is to be phased out ahead of a ban in 2026.
Announcing the widely welcomed move, a government Minister pointed to an ‘unacceptably high’ number of injuries at tracks and declared that ‘the time has come to make a call in the best interest of the animals’.
Ireland must not hesitate to follow suit. Greyhound Racing Ireland statistics show that at races here since 2014, more than 3,480 greyhounds were injured and 1,290 killed. This includes 178 injuries and 96 deaths in the first six months of 2024.
Among the injuries suffered were broken necks and leg bones, fractured skulls, severed spine/spinal paralysis, dislocated toes and ruptured ligaments and tendons. Some greyhounds have collapsed dead with heart failure as they run towards the finish line.
Additional horrors are hidden behind the scenes. As revealed by RTE in its award-winning ‘Greyhounds Running for their Lives’ documentary, greyhounds are killed every year because they are not fast enough.
Micheál Martin has said he is ‘not a big greyhound racing fan’, while Simon Harris recently stated: ‘I take animal welfare extraordinarily seriously’.
They should take inspiration from New Zealand and make Ireland the next country to stop greyhound racing in its tracks.
In Budget 2025 there was a €4.1m increase in funding allocated for both the horse and greyhound industries, bringing the total allocation to just under €100m. Almost €20m of this is for the greyhound industry.
The 2025 allocation brings to over €1.8bn – yes BILLION – the amount grant-aided to horse and greyhound racing since 2001.
Philip Kiernan,
Irish Council Against Blood Sports
Mullingar,
Co Westmeath.
We are impotent in the face of horrific violence
EDITOR – The Christmas season of goodwill is upon us, calling us to give tangible expression to that duty-of-care for one another exemplified by our saviour.
Alongside this, the daily horrors that fill our newsfeed from the land of his birth are all too poignant. It is also distressing how media outlets invariably exclude any reference to the lord of peace from their coverage. So often we are left feeling impotent when faced with such violence.
However, god’s footprints are always discernible in the lives of those who turn to him and live by his word. In the Jewish scriptures we find that we ought to never use the sin of another to justify our own wrongdoing.
Even more insistently the new testament’s law of love, admonishes us to remove any impediment that would block god loving others through us.
In this holy season may god’s message of peace resound in our hearts and not be suffocated by the stench of hatred, or side-lined by an obsessive, unfounded belief in man – man’s own destructive capability.
Gearoid Duffy,
Lee Road, Cork.
Let’s not rush into any methane ‘magic wand’
EDITOR – If lessons are learnt from the advent of the Covid era to the present time, would it not be prudent to say, ‘Hold your horses’ on the proposition of rolling out methane-reducing feed additives to dairy cattle? Would it not be prudent to facilitate extensive deliberations on the matter by those for and against the novel idea?
Let’s not forget the saga of what had been initially labelled as a ‘novel’ coronavirus and initial belief that it would take ‘two weeks to flatten the curve’.
From what we know so far, a Dutch manufacturing company is making strides to bring its version to market and Bill Gates has serious investments in the development of similar products.
The ‘speed-of-science’ should assert if such products are given to cows – ie will associated contaminants manifest in human-consuming milk, a dairy product that is essential for good health?
If those ingredients in the food chain cause widespread human constipation, enhancing constipation-relieving medical prescriptions, will this create yet another ‘can of worms’ (excuse the pun) that will need to be addressed.
There is no mention of possible side effects by the pro-introduction lobbyists of the rapidly-developed methane-reducing pharmaceutical ‘magic wand’.
Can we be sure this potential ‘cash cow’(excuse the pun) will reduce methane emissions from cows, on average by 27%?
Joe Terry,
Blarney.
Any new government should focus on homes
EDITOR – If there is a government formed soon and they are wondering where to begin – they should start by doing something for our homeless people.
We have 15,000 now, including 4,645 children, who are cold and hungry on our streets in tents and emergency accommodation.
There were people queueing up outside the Dublin Capuchin Day Centre from early morning for food parcels, only to be told there was none left and had to go away empty-handed. The centre provides 1,000 meals a day normally, and this is a huge jump from 700 to 1,000 and still not enough.
The Penny Dinners and the Lions Club do great work, to mention just two.
Noel Harrington,
Kinsale.
Collins would turn in his grave over FG now
EDITOR – In August 1922 General Michael Collins visited south west Cork, hoping to meet the anti-Treaty side to put an end to the heartbreaking civil war. All to no avail.
In November 2024, the same West Cork has a divided and TD-less party of Fine Gael.
Collins would turn in his grave to see the division and in-fighting going on in his native West Cork. Comrade against comrade. Brother against brother. And meanwhile the incumbent TDs grow stronger and stronger in opposition.
Michael Hallissey,
Bandon.
