Actions speak louder than Ted Walsh’s words

Dear Editor,

I’m less concerned about RTE pundit Ted Walsh’s recent oddball commentary at the Punchestown Races than I am with how another four-legged runner, the noble greyhound, is treated.

Actions speak far louder than words, and have deeper implications in the real world where greyhounds are massively over-bred, which results in many of these animals being disposed off via a whack on the head with a shovel, a bullet in the brain, or, if the dog is lucky, a lethal injection.

There’s no need for anyone, TV pundit or otherwise, to call the poor greyhound a “dirty rotten so and so”, as Mr. Walsh described an under performing horse, because that’s how the animal is routinely rewarded for its loyal and unstinting service.

And in coursing, our supposedly protected Irish Hare gets a real hiding when pinned down, forcibly struck, or tossed up into the air like a sloithar on a hurling pitch, or when the dogs maul its delicate reddish brown frame or crush its brittle bones.

Ted Walsh has since apologised for his ill-advised and offensive remarks, and rightly so, but when will we hear an apology for how the hare and the greyhound have been made to suffer, all for a gamble and a laugh?

I can think of some prominent politicians who should be saying ‘sorry’ for propping up this chamber of horrors that we call ‘ an industry’.

Up to now they’ve ignored appeals and petitions, but the times are a-changing and some day they’ll be forced to accept that on this issue, they backed the wrong horse.

Thanking you, John Fitzgerald, Lower Coyne Street, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.