FURTHER PROGRESS MADE IN TRACEABILITY DURING 2022

GRI

Substantial further progress has been made this year in the area of traceability, which is vital to safeguarding the future of the sport of greyhound racing.  RCÉ commenced collating all data pertaining to all official and unofficial trials during 2022 with the introduction of additional functionality planned for 2023.

RCÉTS allows the whereabouts of a racing greyhound to be monitored by RCÉ throughout its life stages up to the point of retirement/rehoming. These life stages include birth, registration, racing career, all changes of ownership and location, and end of life.

As RCÉTS is a live database with updates constantly occurring in real time, data capture is undertaken at end of year intervals to assess the level of activity across several parameters in that given year.

At year end, 2021, there were 23,760 greyhounds subject to traceability. Of these, 18,538 dogs were classified as active, meaning they had raced or trialled or had updates provided for them in 2021.  These dogs require updates every 42 days, if they haven’t presented at an RCÉ licenced track.  Updates in this category include racing dogs in training, racing or pups that were still growing and intended to race in the future.  

Active greyhounds remain active until they are updated to state that they are exported, retired, rehomed, retained as a pet or died. Once this update has been provided, they are classified as inactive. Inactive greyhounds no longer require updates but where the last update provided states that they have been retained for breeding or as a pet, then the dog remains on that owner’s profile so that they may be inspected during a welfare inspection, by an RCÉ welfare inspector.

In 2021, there were 5,222 greyhounds classified as inactive. Inactive greyhounds include greyhounds that have been exported, retired, rehomed or died. Of these dogs, 2,884 dogs were updated as exported, 1,259 were classified as rehomed, 178 were classified as retained for breeding and 79 were retained as pets by their racing owners. Dogs that are classified as inactive may become active again if they present at an RCÉ track for racing or trialling. Dogs that are classified as inactive but are classified as retained for breeding or retained as a pet remain on an owner’s profile so that welfare inspectors can inspect these dogs during welfare inspections.

In 2021, there were 794 (3.3% of 23,760) greyhound deaths reported on RCÉTS, of which 140 dogs died of natural causes. The remaining 654 were euthanised. Of these 654 greyhounds, 30 were euthanised on the grounds of terminal illness and 52 were euthanised as unsuitable as a pet. Of the remaining 572 dogs, 382 were euthanised on humane grounds and 190 greyhound deaths were notified to the Irish Greyhound Stud Book.