Greyhounds Around the Globe

Trudy Baker lives in the North East of England. She founded Greyt Exploitations in 2008 with a mission to present well-researched and factual information about dog racing to the media and parliamentarians.

She currently cares for three greyhounds and an elderly lurcher, and in her spare time designs arts and crafts to help to raise funds for campaigning and adoption efforts alike.

Ruth Coppinger is a Solidarity-People Before Profit TD for Dublin West.

Since being elected in 2014, Ruth has been a champion for the greyhounds and raised opposition to dog racing and hare coursing. This year, she championed a bill to ban fur farming which led the government to announce its own phase-out. Ruth has also been the leading voice for women’s rights and fair housing in the Dáil, highlighted the scandalous cost of childcare, and opposed cuts to Lone Parents.

Katie Corcoran lives near Cork city in Ireland and grew up in the beautiful countryside of West Cork. She became involved in animal welfare during a campaign to address the serious situation facing dogs in her city pound in 2012. That successful effort introduced her to other rescue organizations, which she began helping with home-checks, transports and fundraising. Through these groups, she became aware of the harsh realities for greyhounds in the racing and coursing industries.

In 2016 Katie co-founded Greyhound Awareness Cork. Along with her rescued brindle Molly, Katie raises awareness and helps bring attention to a large number of people who have never been close to or petted a greyhound before. She organizes protests at tracks, speaks up for greyhounds on national and local radio, and has contributed to many newspaper articles.

Gill Docherty joined her local track protest a few years ago and has taken the plight of the greyhounds to her heart. With two hounds at home and having a wealth of experience in fostering and volunteering for other greyhound rescue organizations, she is a founding member and Chair of the influential group Scotland Against Greyhound Exploitation (SAGE).

Gill and the SAGE team host regular stand-outs at both of Scotland's dog tracks and have been interviewed by both local and national television, radio and print outlets. Behind the scenes they are working to lobby members of Parliament concurrent with maintaining their high profile awareness campaign. She and her team have travelled throughout Scotland and to Nottingham, London and Dublin to support protests throughout the UK and Ireland.

Nuala Donlon of Greyhound Action Ireland is a life-long animal rights campaigner. She co-founded the Alliance for Animal Rights (AFAR) in the early 1990s. AFAR was the first animal rights group to exist in Ireland, and is still going strong. Since then, Nuala has been a tireless voice for animals in Ireland, having had a prominent role in the successful campaigns to ban stag hunting, fur farming and the use of wild animals in circuses.

Currently working to achieve a ban on greyhound racing, Nuala also actively promotes veganism, a lifestyle she has followed for the past thirty years. A teacher by profession, she shares her home with five beloved rescue dogs.

As president and general counsel for GREY2K USA Worldwide, Christine Dorchak has extensive professional experience in the animal protection movement. Before obtaining her law degree, she worked as director of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society and managed a no-kill cat shelter in Boston.

Christine specializes in pari-mutuel law and has drafted laws to successfully prohibit dog racing in several states and countries. A long-distance runner all of her life, she has competed in seven Boston Marathons. Christine enjoys spending free time with her four cats and adopted greyhounds Gina and Brooklyn.

Marion Fitzgibbon is the founder of Limerick Animal Welfare and a former president of the ISPCA. She also serves as director of Pro Animale Ireland, the Greyhound Sanctuary and Fallenberg Horse Sanctuary.

Marion started to campaign for the welfare of Greyhounds in 1994 and faced an entrenched Irish greyhound industry protected by money and power. In 1997, Marion’s report on the exploitation and abuse of Irish greyhounds racing in Barcelona and Palma was instrumental in closing down tracks in Spain. Marion campaigns actively to ban greyhound racing in Ireland.

Dr. Samantha Gaines is head of the companion animals department within the science and policy group of the RSPCA.

She manages a team of scientific and technical officers who develop policy, position, advice and information on companion animal behaviour, specializing in canine welfare.

Dr. Andrew Kelly studied Zoology at the University of Glasgow before completing a PhD in evolutionary ecology at the University of Leeds. Following a number of years as a post-doctoral researcher, working on a wide range of species including seabirds and marine turtles, Andrew joined the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as Manager of their flagship wildlife rehabilitation centre and rehoming cattery in Cheshire, England and latterly as Head of the RSPCA’s Wildlife Department. Following this, Andrew worked as a policy advisor for Humane Society International before taking up his current position as CEO of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in February 2014.

Jeroen van Kernebeek lives in Sydney where he serves as Managing Director for FOUR PAWS Australia. He is also Australian Director for GREY2K USA Worldwide. Jeroen is originally from The Netherlands, where he coordinated the youth education program for the Jane Goodall Institute, served as Campaign Manager for several animal protection organizations, and also worked at one of Europe’s largest sanctuaries for exotic animals.

Since leaving his home country, Jeroen has consulted with World Animal Net and worked for Animals Australia, where he led national campaigns for animals used in entertainment. Jeroen has a Masters Degree in Educational Sciences and loves to go camping in the Australian bush in his spare time.

Albano Martins is the President of ANIMA, the Society for the Protection of Animals of Macau. He also serves on the GREY2K USA Worldwide Board of Directors. Since 2011, he has led the campaign to close the Canidrome, China’s only legal dog track.

Albano is a Libson-educated economist and a regularly contributing columnist to the Jornal Triuna de Macau. Hundreds of dogs, cats and other animals are saved each year due to his valiant efforts.

Nicole Matthews is long-time animal rights campaigner and greyhound advocate. As a vegan mother of three, Nicole regularly speaks at school and public events about the importance of animal rescue, highlighting the adoption of greyhounds and lurchers in particular. She testified in favor of ending dog racing as part of the Oireachtas Greyhound Amendment Bill of 2017.

As a long-time committee member of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, she advocates for a boycott of all blood sports, including hare coursing, fox hunting and badger baiting.

Paul Murphy is a TD for Dublin South-West for Solidarity-People Before Profit and was first elected in 2014.

In the Dáil, Paul brought forward the bill which prompted the government regulation to outlaw the use of wild animals in circuses. He has been a courageous voice for minorities and has called out fiscal government abuses, including the millions of dollars wasted on subsidizing the commercial greyhound industry each year.

Emma O'Brien moved from England to Ireland 30 years ago with a passion for helping horses. As the kennel manager for the Galway SPCA, she rescues animals every day with a goal of rehabilitating even the most abused among them. She is fueled by her unstoppable passion to “fix the mentally broken.”

Emma shares her home with two greyhounds, Yoga and Mr. Magoo, and always has a foster hound or two. Her work is her life.

Maureen O'Sullivan is an Independent TD for Dublin Central.

She has lived in East Wall all her life and has been involved as a community activist in her local area for more than thirty years. She works tirelessly on behalf of her constituency and has been a leading voice against greyhound racing and hare coursing.

Andrea Pollard lives in Perth, Western Australia and has been involved in greyhound advocacy there since 2016. She is the Treasurer of both Greyhound Adoptions WA, one of the largest greyhound adoption agencies in Australia and Free the Hounds, a welfare advocacy group.

A lifelong animal lover, Andrea and her husband enjoy the companionship of thee cats and three greyhounds, with Canidrome survivor Hope the most recent addition to their family. She has recently led a campaign to end Western Australia’s archaic laws requiring greyhounds to be muzzled while in public and as a politically minded activist works closely with supportive lawmakers to improve welfare outcomes for greyhounds while also pushing for an end to racing.

Since co-founding GREY2K USA Worldwide in 2001, Carey Theil has been sourced in hundreds of news articles about greyhound racing, and has authored guest columns about the industry published in the Orlando Sentinel, Charleston Daily Mail, Sun-Sentinel, Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, Tallahassee Democrat, Mobile Press-Register, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Pensacola News Journal, Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Rocky Mountain News, Foster’s Daily Democrat, Lowell Sun and Lynn Daily Item.

He has extensive legislative experience, and has testified in favor of stronger greyhound protection laws before legislative committees in Alabama, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Oregon. In his free time, Carey volunteers for various non-profit organizations and is a National Master in chess.

Stefania Traini is the President and co-founder of Pet Levrieri. She is a Philosophy and Psychology graduate who worked in the educational and personnel fields before devoting herself entirely to a career as a clinical psychotherapist. She is a qualified dog behaviorist, and began to learn about the situation of racing greyhounds after she adopted her first greyhound, Silky, in 2008. This inspired her to get involved in the antiracing and antihunting campaign movement in defense of greyhounds and galgos, alongside her husband Massimo Greco who is equally committed. In 2018, Stefania led the European and UK adoption efforts for 150 greyhounds rescued from the Canidrome, a track that she and Massimo helped to close.

Stefania and Massimo have adopted seven dogs together, five greyhounds, including Zen from Macau and King from China, a galgo and a Dobermann crossbreed. Stefania is also passionate about swimming, reading, nature and music.