A 2-year-old greyhound died on Saturday night after finishing third in a race at Shelbourne Park stadium
There are now renewed calls on the government to ban greyhound racing after the dog, Ballymac Syd, suffered a heart attack and died.
“Unfortunately the night ended on a sour note for the unfortunate Ballymac Syd,” the Greyhound Star website has reported.
Graham Holland who did a race report on the evening stated:
“I realised that something was the matter when Shane Dowling shouted me. I had seen it before, the poor dog was having a heart attack. We managed to get him to the van and I started compressions but the tongue had already gone blue. He died shortly afterwards. A lovely dog and a sad end to the evening.”
The IGB have not given any coverage of the dog's death on their website.
See video footage of Ballymac Syd's final race -
Two other fatalities similar to this also occurred last year at Clonmel and Curraheen Park tracks.
According to Aideen Yourell, who is a campaign director at Irish Council Against Blood Sports says:
"Greyhounds are also dying in dog pounds around Ireland. 53 greyhounds were destroyed in pounds last year, bringing the number of greyhounds killed in pounds in the past nine years to to 2,782."
