Greyhound racing should be allowed to resume alongside horse racing
AS we slowly and cautiously go back to some normality, this week we entered Stage One of the planned Covid-19 Roadmap for Reopening Ireland.
Last Friday it was announced that horse racing will start back on June 8 behind closed doors, ahead of the previously planned return date of June 29. However, it seems that greyhound racing will still not resume until June 29.
The greyhound industry successfully ran race meetings earlier this year from 12 to 24 March whilst ensuring to adhere to social distancing and sanitisation measures. At that time a policy of ‘one person, one dog’ was implemented which ensured that each dog was accompanied by one person only, and spectators were not allowed on site. If greyhound racing is to resume earlier, similar to horse racing, it would again be on a ‘ behind closed doors’ basis. This would mean that Tote, restaurant and bar facilities would be closed.
Racing activity does not require any medical support facilities as qualified veterinary officers are in situ for each race meeting. The outdoor nature of greyhound racing and the extensive open spaces available allows for social distancing requirements. The industry is predominantly an outdoor agricultural industry with the greyhound being classified as a farm animal.
Greyhound racing is one of a range of ‘safer sports’ as it can be run in such a way that only extremely limited social interaction is needed. Operating behind closed doors, the activity removes all public involvement and involves greyhound owners caring for their animals through engaging them in racing activity.
Greyhound sport is an important part of the sporting culture here and provides over 12,000 jobs in direct and indirect employment. A return to racing would also provide economic support to the industry through prizemoney payments and media rights income through the
Irish Greyhound Board’s partnership with Sports Information Services (SIS).
The Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) has developed an extensive ‘Return to Racing’ protocol which complies fully with the publicly stated requirements of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) for managing Covid-19. The IGB is also well advanced in making the necessary arrangements to comply with the Return to Work Safely protocol also recently published by Government.
The Greyhound Industry has received a lot of bad press in recent times and has implemented many changes to ensure that greyhound welfare is always a top priority. Throughout the period of suspension of racing due to Covid-19 the IGB has implemented a Covid-19 Greyhound Care Payment Scheme to help with the costs of training greyhounds. The IGB also recently announced that the Youghal and Enniscorthy tracks, which had been selected for closure, are to remain open on a trial basis to address their financial challenges, news which was strongly welcomed in both towns.
Having been involved in the greyhound industry all my life, I know that the welfare of greyhounds is first and foremost in the mind of the greyhound community and a return to racing is in the best interests of greyhounds and trainers alike.
‘The outdoor nature of grey hound racing and the extensive open spaces available allowsf or social distancing requirements’