‘Retirement homes’ for greyhounds must have facilities for other animals

New “care centres” for old and injured greyhounds must have facilities for other animals.

The Irish Greyhound Board, which regulates the greyhound racing industry, has issued a tender seeking providers of “retirement homes” for racing greyhounds. Facilities will include secure kennels and exercise areas. The care centres will find new homes for the greyhounds.

The operators of the care centres will have to provide facilities for the “socialisation” of greyhounds to include contact with other pets, including cats and rabbits. The tender is a response by the commercial semi-state body to the maltreatment of non-racing greyhounds, including animal cruelty and the euthanisation of healthy dogs. These practices were highlighted in an RTÉ Investigates programme in June.

Some 16,000 greyhounds are born every year in the Republic, but 6,000 are killed because they fail to make qualification times or are past their peak performance.

The proposed care centres will allow greyhounds to have a “home-type environment” and a visitor room where potential adopters can watch DVDs of greyhounds who have been rehomed.

The new centres must provide 24-hour veterinary cover, as well as facilities for the “socialisation” of greyhounds. The greyhounds are “to be introduced to children of all ages and children to be encouraged to walk and control the greyhound”.

The greyhounds must also have regular contact with other breeds of dog and with other domestic pets, “such as cats and rabbits”.

The operators of the care centres must have a plan for rehoming animals and build contact with organisations that work with adults or children that are disadvantaged or have a disability.

Appearing before the joint Oireachtas committee on agriculture, earlier this month, IGB chairman Frank Nyhan outlined the measures that the board proposed to introduce to improve the welfare of greyhounds, including the provision of care centres, “so that greyhounds can lead a healthy life after retirement”.

IGB welfare manager, Barry Coleman, said this initiative was intended to help the transition of racing greyhounds from the track to retirement.

“These care centres, along with our newly extended foster scheme and further financial supports for domestic rehomings, will ensure that as many retired Irish greyhounds as possible can find loving, forever homes after their racing careers come to an end.”