Greyhound dies of broken neck at Mullingar Stadium

A greyhound at Mullingar Stadium suffered a racing fatality after the dog broke its neck.

The incident happened on Friday, January 23 last.

There were a further six injuries to greyhounds at Mullingar from January 1 to July 31. These injuries included broken/fractured hock and wrist injury.

The six greyhounds injured at Mullingar Greyhound Stadium were treated for their injuries.

One greyhound sustained a hock injury during a trial at the Mullingar track on Saturday, March 28, and was “treated by vet under Mullingar Injury Scheme”.

This forms part of a nationwide picture in which, between January 1 and July 31, 151 dogs were injured, of which 84 were euthanised by track vets, and five died on the track or shortly after a race.

The information was provided by Greyhound Racing Ireland in response to a Dáil question from People Before Profit–Solidarity TD Paul Murphy.

Deputy Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, “the number of greyhounds injured in racing, trials and sales events to-date in 2026, by type of injury; the date and location where they occurred; the number killed outright or euthanised by track vets; the number and causes of additional racing fatalities; and the results of any related post-mortems.”

In its response, Greyhound Racing Ireland noted that the 151 injuries “represent 0.31% of the total number of greyhounds that raced on RCÉ licenced tracks during that period”, noting a total of 48,228 runners.

Greyhound Action Ireland, a group dedicated to ending commercial greyhound racing in the Republic of Ireland, called the figures "misleading".

"The figure of 48,228 actually relates to race entries, and is not a “total number” of individual greyhounds. According to previously published GRI data, the number of greyhounds in the “racing pool” over a year is around 4,850. This means that the actual percentage of greyhounds injured and killed is around 10 times higher than what is being claimed by GRI."