URGENT – Lobby the Irish Government, write to your MEP, to Save Greyhounds From CHINA

IT’S ALL ABOUT MONEY – NOT ABOUT LIVING CREATURS! Urgent Reminder: to help the majority of greyhounds who are not lucky enough to be rescued. Are you a tax payer too? If so, you are helping to subsidise the Irish greyhound racing industry via the IMF bail-out

Every letter counts from around the world!

Worldwide protest letters needed now please and online petition link below where thousands of signatures are needed before it’s too late!

Full details and important info below for everyone to read and take immediate action. Please keep all correspondence polite when writing to the Irish government and your MP/MEP. Please also send your emails straight to these people’s in boxes as well as the email addresses provided below.

michael.noonan@oireachtas.irlgov.ie and enda.kenny@oireachtas.irlgov.ie

The Irish national budget for 2012 is now under preparation for publication in December, so time is of the essence.

Ireland is in receipt of a bail-out from the IMF/EU/ECB. In December 2010, the IMF approved a 3 year extended fund facility arrangement (EFF) for Ireland amounting to €22.5 bn, which is part of an international rescue package worth €85 billion. The governments of the UK, Sweden and Denmark are contributing to the financial rescue package for Ireland in addition to their membership of the IMF. All of this is coming from tax payers around the world.

The Irish government’s National Recovery Plan is a component of the international rescue package. As part of the National Recovery Plan, universal social welfare benefits will be cut in Ireland but the bail-out should not disadvantage the most vulnerable groups in society. This remains a core policy objective for the Irish Government.

The Bord na gCon is a commercial semi-state body responsible for the control and development of the greyhound industry in Ireland. The Bord na gCon received €13.6m from the Irish government in 2009 and around €11m in 2010. Incidentally, the Bord na gCon is now in need of €15m to develop a business venture in China where it intends to build racing stadia and infrastructure.

The Irish government plans to cut 150 – 200 special needs assistants in schools in 2011 in order to comply with the terms of the bail-out. The number of special needs assistants, which stands at 10,802, exceeds a cap agreed under the conditions of the EU-IMF bailout by 227 posts.

How can the reduction of the special needs assistants and other social welfare benefits comply with the aims of the National Recovery Plan and be feasible while the government continues to subsidise the greyhound racing industry?

If, as a taxpayer, you think that this is unacceptable, please register your disapproval with the Irish government and your own MP & MEP (or your parliamentary representative if you are outside of Europe) that your taxes are contributing towards funding the Irish greyhound racing industry rather than social welfare.

Contact addresses:

Enda Kenny T.D., Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Postal Address: Department of the Taoiseach, Government Buildings, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2, Ireland E-mail: webmaster@taoiseach.gov.ie

Michael Noonan T.D, Minister for Finance Postal Address: Department of Finance, Government Buildings, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2,
Ireland. E-mail: webmaster@finance.irlgov.ie
Please also consider writing to your own MP and MEP to register your disapproval. You can find your MP/MEP at http://www.writetothem.com/
Grey2kUSA http://www.grey2kusa.org/ has a petition which it will send to the Irish government to urge it to stop using public funds to support commercial greyhound racing. You can sign the petition here http://www.grey2kusa.org/

GIN, Scooby and SOS Galgos helped in the closure of the Barcelona Meridiana Racetrack where Irish greyhounds were kept in horrendous conditions. In these photos you can get an idea of what is in store for Irish greyhounds shipped to China!