Barry’s Tea ignores appeals for end to greyhound racing sponsorship

Thumbs down to Barry's Tea for continuing to sponsor greyhound racing at a track where dogs suffer and die.

The company has ignored calls for it to scrap the sponsorship and at the weekend was behind the €9,000 “2019 Barry's Tea Open 750 Stake Final” at Curraheen Park track in Cork.

Curraheen Park is one of the worst tracks in Ireland for greyhound injuries and deaths. Over the past four years alone, 97 greyhounds have been reported injured there and 36 were destroyed by a track vet. Among the victims at Curraheen Park was a dog who died of a “suspected heart attack” last June.

Barry's Tea is one of the greyhound industry's biggest supporters, having sponsored races at Curraheen Park for years. The 2017 Barry's Tea Open 750 race offered over €9,000 in prize money while in 2016, more than €8,000 was on offer. Barry's Tea director, Tony Barry, has been photographed presenting a trophy to the owner of a winning greyhound.

Last May, shocking footage surfaced showing a greyhound crashing out of a race sponsored by the company. In the video, 2-year-old Moorstown Venus can be seen falling badly and hurtling towards the track-side barrier during the "2018 Barry's Tea Open Stake Round 1 Heat 2" race - See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjwuQtGe7PQ&t=25s

In continuing to sponsor greyhound racing, Barry's Tea is disregarding the cruelty inherent in the greyhound industry, including injuries and deaths at tracks, the dumping and killing of greyhounds no longer considered quick enough to win and the export of greyhounds to countries with little or no animal welfare laws.

Since 2015, at least 1,559 greyhounds have suffered injuries at tracks around Ireland. 506 of these dogs were killed by track vets.

Meanwhile, at least 2,729 greyhounds have been destroyed in Irish pounds in the past eight years. In addition, thousands of greyhounds go missing each year, presumed killed when found to be too slow. One Irish trainer remarked online: "I've seen dogs being shot. It has to be done as there's too many of them to rehome." A former chairman of the Irish Greyhound Board meanwhile admitted on Cork's 96 FM that he believes it is "absolutely" okay for thousands of dogs to be killed and that racing couldn't exist without the destruction of dogs.

Some of the industry's horrors were highlighted on RTE's Prime Time - Limerick Animal Welfare's Marion Fitzgibbon told viewers: "We believe there are probably 10,000 greyhounds put to sleep every year. They can be killed in all sorts of fashions. We've had so many instances of finding them shot, ears cut off, drowned." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIUkAGa708s

Another major RTE exposé is due to be broadcast tomorrow evening, Wednesday 26 June at 9.35pm. The "RTÉ Investigates: Greyhounds Running for Their Lives" programme will "go behind the public facade of greyhound racing to reveal SERIOUS ANIMAL WELFARE ISSUES in an industry that costs Irish taxpayers millions of euros every year".

The programme can also be watched live online at
https://www.rte.ie/player/onnow

ACTION ALERT

Urge Barry's Tea to show compassion for the dogs and permanently end its sponsorship of greyhound racing.

Barry's Tea,
Kinsale Road, Cork, Ireland
Tel: +353 21 491 5000
Email: info@barrystea.ie
Leave a comment on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/barrystea
Tweet to @barrysteatweets

OTHER COMPANIES SUPPORTING GREYHOUND RACING IN 2019
(Source: Irish Greyhound Board)

Gain Dog Food
Red Mills
Irish Independent
Marshes Shopping Centre
Boylesports
Flaherty Markets Galway
Dublin Coach / QuickPark.ie (car park at Dublin Airport)
Kasko dog food
Thurles Fresh Milk
Treacys Hotel Waterford
Speedrite Rose of Tralee
Casey's Caravan and Camping
Lee Strand
Kerry GAA Supporters
Kerry Group
Best Car Parks
Ladbrokes
Healthcare and Transport
Comerford Cakes