An Irish greyhound who was used in racing at Shelbourne Park, Curraheen Park and Youghal tracks is now “being used as a breeding machine in Pakistan”.
A disturbing photo of “Knockboy Jet” in Pakistan was published on the Facebook page of CAGED Nationwide this week. The greyhound campaign group expressed concerns about the dog, saying “the condition of this lad has really deteriorated since being exported”. https://www.facebook.com/cagednw
Members of the public have reacted with disgust to the photo, with comments including:
“this greyhound needs a vet, he looks so sick”, “poor dog” and “this is why greyhound racing needs to stop for ever“.
There is no indication on the Greyhound Racing Ireland website that Knockboy Jet was exported out of Ireland and ended up in Pakistan – a country with little or no animal welfare laws. A GRI page for the greyhound shows that he was first used in racing at Youghal track on 19 June 2019. During the following four months, he was entered into 9 races at Shelbourne Park in Dublin and one race at Curraheen Park in Cork.
In December 2019, he was trialled at Brough Park track in the UK and in March 2020 was used in three races at Nottingham track. In June 2020, he was back in Ireland for a trial at Dundalk stadium. Sometime after that, he was exported to Pakistan.
A “Knockboy Jet at Stud” page on Facebook states that “in Pakistan, he got injured”, adding that “before injury, he shows his true class in Raja Rustum Greyhound Derby 2021 – he won both quarter final and semi-final and beat almost all top dogs of Pakistan, Tommys Fantasy, Racecourse Mine, Red Stone, Jumeirah Buddy, etc.”
The CAGED Nationwide campaign has previously pointed out: “Irish greyhounds bred for the racing industry are being forced to travel thousands of miles to countries where there are no welfare laws. Around 80 per cent of dogs are sent to the UK from Ireland, but many are later transported to countries like Pakistan to be used for racing, of where there are no animal welfare laws whatsoever to protect them from suffering and death.”
Kerry Elliman of Birmingham Greyhound Protection has also condemned the export of greyhounds to countries “with no animal welfare laws”.
Greyhounds sent to Pakistan “will either die at a very young age once they can no longer race or will be bred from,” she said, adding that a contact in Pakistan told her that it’s “dreadful for the dogs there, it’s always mega hot, there’s no animal protection laws, no rehoming programs and not many vets and the ones that are out there are hours away.”
He told her he has seen greyhounds starved to death at the end of their career.
ACTION ALERT
Join us in urging Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to act NOW to stop the export of Irish greyhounds to Pakistan and to end the government funding that is keeping cruel greyhound racing afloat in Ireland.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD
Telephone: +353 (0)1-704 3630 OR +353 (0)1-640 3133
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: http://www.twitter.com/@LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Charlie McConalogue TD
Minister for Agriculture
Tel: (01) 618 3199 OR (074) 917 7282
Email: charlie.mcconalogue@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CharlieMcConalogue
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@McConalogue
Watch RTE’s award-winning “Greyhounds Running For Their Lives” documentary
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