Greyhounds to China – further action to take – response from RSPCA & PETA

Greyhounds to China – two addresses for postal letters to be sent.

Irish Greyhound Board, Green Park, Dock Road, Limerick, Irish Republic

Department of Agriculture, Agriculture House, Kildare St., Dublin 2, Irish
Republic

Further appeal from Greyhound Action

We are very keen to persuade the influential 38 Degrees website to take up
the campaign to stop the export of Irish greyhounds to China.

Please go to http://tinyurl.com/greyhounds-38Degrees Click “Vote”
Fill in your details
And click on “3 Votes”

If you are on Facebook and/or Twitter, please promote the campaign at
http://www.facebook.com/peoplepowerchange and http://twitter.com/38_degrees.

Here’s a reply from the RSPCA to Judy Greenfield

From: Enqserv Enqserv <Enqserv@rspca.org.uk>
Date: Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 2:25 AM
Subject: Re: HELP STOP THE IMPORT OF RACING GREYHOUNDS TO CHINA
To: Judy Greenfield

Thank you for your email. Thank you for your email. The RSPCA is
extremely disturbed to hear of plans to export greyhounds from Ireland
to China. We are concerned about the overbreeding of greyhounds for
racing and the export of unwanted greyhounds. We believe that their
welfare should be protected ‘from cradle to grave’, and not just at
the racing track. Given the inadequacies in current UK legislation
covering greyhound racing, it is clear to us that the welfare needs of
these animals are unlikely to be met in China, where no regulation
exists of any kind to protect domestic animals.

RSPCA International has been active in China since 1998. While we have
seen a significant rise in public awareness and an increasing
intolerance of animal cruelty, China still lacks basic legal protection
for animals. The RSPCA has played a leading role in promoting the
development of China’s first animal legislation and at the same time
encouraging the inclusion of animal welfare in the national curriculum.

A committee of China’s most experienced law professors invited RSPCA
International to help produce the country’s first general animal
protection legislation, and after two years of work a tentative draft
‘Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Law’ was released in February
2010. We then co-hosted an ‘International Forum on Chinese Legislation
for the Protection and Management of Animals’ in Beijing to encourage
public discussion about the draft. Recent surveys in China show that
popular opinion is now very much behind the moves to protect all animals
from cruelty.

However, protection in law is still some way off. In the meantime there
is widespread ignorance of the needs of animals and significant welfare
issues affecting animals kept for companionship, commercial, sport or
entertainment purposes. There are no guarantees that even minimum
standards of care could be provided, or that animals would be humanely
destroyed. Many Chinese cities are already struggling to cope with
increasing numbers of abandoned and mistreated pet dogs.

We would urge any individual or business planning to export animals to
China to seriously consider the likelihood that they will receive
inadequate care or even mistreatment, and the probable fate of an animal
once its useful life is over.

You may be interested to learn that the RSPCA, along with a group of
other leading animal welfare organisations and the governing body for
dogs in the UK, have contacted the IGB and asked for clarification on
its position regarding this issue.

Thank you once again for contact the Society and your obvious concern
for animal welfare.

Kind regards
RSPCA HQ Advice Team

Also PETA reply

Thank you for contacting PETA.

You are rightly concerned that greyhounds exported to China for racing
may have their welfare compromised. Yet all around the world – even in
Europe and the US – the racing industry is associated with incredible
cruelty, as it treats greyhounds like equipment, discards dogs who
don’t “make the cut” as though they were trash and subjects these
gentle, sociable animals to a life of servitude and misery. Most of
the greyhounds who are bred to supply the demands of the British
greyhound racing industry every year in this country and in Ireland
will be killed or dumped at animal shelters, where they will be left
to languish, lonely and depressed.

The sad fact remains that for animals around the world, greyhound
racing is a most dangerous “game”.

Please visit PETA US’ website at
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/greyhound-racing.aspx
for more information on this so-called “sport”.

The following are a few links to information on how to do even more to save the animals who so desperately need the help of compassionate people like you:

• Sign up for PETA’s e-news:
http://www.peta.org.uk/action/subscribe-to-enews/.

• Become an activist: http://www.peta.org.uk/action/join-action-team/.

Please visit PETA.org.uk regularly for news and updates.

Thanks again for writing and for everything that you do for animals.
Your letters and actions save lives!

Sincerely,

Phil Murray

Supporter Services Administrator