Ms Nicole Matthews:

I can tie in the concerns raised by both members in my statement. There is an online community of very hard working and passionate people on animal rescue throughout the country. Social media has become an endemic part of contact for everybody in all corners of the country. It is the quickest method to share a message about the needs of an animal in distress. For example, if a dog is in severe distress, it may be located in a county that has foster care on standby. We have collaborated and joined forces to transport greyhounds from one spot to another when they are no longer able to race. As the Deputy touched on, some trainers and breeders care for their dogs and will not be the first to use the bolt gun to assassinate them when they do not run fast enough. These trainers and breeders communicate with the rescue societies and the pounds and those in between to try to offer the dogs some form of rehoming and retirement away from the track. That is only right and is the very least that should be done. On a daily basis, we see a significant number of really badly neglected, malnourished and uncared for animals turning up at the county pounds and tied to the front door or the gates of the rescue premises, often times abandoned after the close of business. Dogs with blue ropes attached around their necks have been found in the bogs, where the bolt gun has been used in an attempt to kill them but has not worked. This issue is very serious and we must tackle the question of making bolt guns illegal. Social media operates on a daily basis to tackle those issues.