We've homed over 200 hounds since we began!

Erin Hounds is based in the North of England and aims to help a few of the many abandoned and neglected sighthounds that fall on hard times in Ireland.

Our mission is:
• To rescue and rehabilitate Irish sighthounds in danger
• To assist people considering a greyhound or a lurcher as a pet
• To raise awareness of greyhound over-breeding and other welfare issues in   Ireland

Why do Irish dogs need help at all?

Well, Ireland has many issues with companion animal welfare, far too complex to go into detail here, but as a result of basically over-breeding and uncontrolled breeding of dogs in general, and often irresponsible ownership, many, many thousands of young, healthy dogs are routinely destroyed in Irish dog pounds and by vets, simply for being unwanted. The only hope for many of these dogs is if they are fortunate enough to come across one of the few splendid groups who try to assist with responsible homings in Ireland or to find themselves with a space in a rescue group in other European countries which have a much better animal welfare record.

Erin Hounds simply focuses on Sighthounds, as they are the dog 'of choice' for the founding members. Greyhounds and Lurchers have a particularly hard time of it in Ireland because of the vast number of dogs bred for the racing industry. Some of the many, many thousands of unwanted Greyhounds often find themselves in the hands of lurcher breeders, looking to breed commercially and sell the dogs as working dogs. As with the racing Greyhounds, many dogs are bred simply to try and obtain 'the one', all the rest are simply cast offs in man's motivation of greed.

The whole issue has many deep facets that can only be touched on briefly here. The basic nitty-gritty is that Ireland breeds more dogs than it can ever imagine homing. These dogs have no future unless it is outside of Ireland. We, at Erin Hounds, are just trying to be another cog helping a few more hounds.

Where do our Hounds come from?
Most of the hounds that come through the hands of Erin Hounds will have come from the West of Ireland, mainly from the Province of Connacht (Erin - meaning out of Ireland). Usually they are lurchers and often, but not exclusively, young dogs.

www.erinhounds.co.uk

Phone: 01928 714558   or    07903 549306 

E-mail : email@erinhounds.co.uk