Retired Irish greyhounds find new homes in Europe
The Irish Greyhound Board says that, by the end of this year, over 420 greyhounds will have been rehomed throughout Ireland, Britain and continental Europe, with Italy particularly receptive to the retired race-runners.
That’s an increase from last year’s figure of 324, with 56% of dogs going abroad heading to Italy and 33% going to Germany.
The board’s efforts to rehome retired greyhounds are “beginning to pay off with great success and some startling results,” according to welfare officer Barry Coleman. “It seems that Italians are increasingly looking to Ireland for their new pet dogs and their overwhelming preference is for greyhounds.”
To ensure the dogs get to their new homes safe and sound, video footage is taken and sent back to Ireland where the former owners who let the greyhounds go for adoption can be reassured.
In recent years the IGB has worked on building relationships with specialist Italian rehoming agencies and, by the end of this year, three of those will be exporting hundreds of Irish greyhounds to brand new homes throughout the country.
“Greyhounds are seen as a rarity on the Continent and they are absolutely mad about them in Italy,” he said.
However, they’d like to see more Irish people taking on retired racing greyhounds as pets.
The cost of rehoming the dogs in Italy is relatively low, at about €200 per greyhound, with half of the money paid by the local agencies and the rest paid by the Retired Greyhound Trust in Ireland which is funded from racing prizemoney deductions.
* www.igb.ie/Welfare/Greyhounds-as-Pets/
