No job is worth a greyhound's life
I would like to respond to Karl Gostl and Matthew Byrne (Letters, March 30 and 31); the former who argues that greyhound lives are worth less than human jobs, the latter that killing greyhounds because they lose their speediness is equal to pigs and chickens being killed for food.
First of all, how can tens of thousands of jobs be considered more important that tens of thousands of greyhound lives?
There are plenty of ways to make a living in this world, but once a greyhound loses its life, it doesn't get another. I find it outrageously heartless to consider a pay packet worth more than an animal's life.
Secondly, equating greyhounds to farm animals makes absolutely no sense.
Greyhounds are bred so that people can bet on which is fastest (a meaningless pursuit); farm animals are bred to feed us, to sustain us. These are two completely different things.
Think about this next time you are at the track. That dog you placed a bet on that came last in that race; would you want to have it killed because it didn't run fast enough? Because it lost you money?
Jay Penn
Galway
Irish Independent
