Sir, - I have just returned from a hectic, sleepless, heartbreaking, sad and desperate few weeks in Spain, having arrived two weeks after 238 greyhounds became "surplus to requirements" when the Pabellon track in Barcelona closed.
Some readers may remember back to 1990 (and Ann Shannon's work before that), when I began campaigning with the ISPCA against the export of greyhounds to Spain. At the time the press was generally supportive, with the more enlightened greyhound owners condemning the trade. Bord na gCon eventually agreed to stop sending dogs to Spain but then, as now, free trade agreements allowed the trade to continue.
What a heartbreaking experience to meet these very dogs, some now very old, which were once sold off in Ireland for a few pounds. I doubt that many greyhound owners would have enjoyed going round with me and the local lady vet as we assessed their pitiful condition: their dreadful skin, some with folds so bad that they will have to be removed surgically; their sores and growths, from years of living in tiny cramped and bare "kennels"; their rotten teeth falling out. Perhaps they would have shed a tear as the dogs, some so timid we can only guess at their history, lined up for me to take their earmarks, because they would get a little pat.
So who will come to the aid of these dogs? Those who defended the trade? Those who encouraged greyhound breeding? Perhaps a Government subsidy will now help them?
It is the ISPCA and other groups such as Greyhound Friends (in America!) and Greyhounds in Need which are now helping the local "Protectora" to pick up the pieces and try to give these poor dogs the life they should have had in the first place!
Ireland is well known for its greyhounds and many thousands are bred every year; but what happens to the thousands of low-grade dogs, the sad by-product of the greyhound industry?
Well, I can tell where a hundred of them are right now. I left them waiting, as is the ISPCA, for someone to justify the breeding of thousands of dogs when their welfare cannot be guaranteed. - Yours, etc.,
Marion Webb,
Mossblown,
Ayr,
Scotland.