Department vet warns of illegal influx of 'remedies'

A veterinary inspector with the Department of Agriculture and Food has warned of an increasing incidence of illegally imported animal "remedies" for greyhounds, racehorses and farm animals which are not authorised for use in this country.

Brian Kilgallen, a veterinary inspector with the department's Special Investigations Unit, said "we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg".

Speaking in Kilkenny after the prosecution of leading greyhound trainer Paul Hennessy for possession of performance-enhancing substances for dogs, he compared the situation to that encountered by Customs officials intercepting imports of illegal drugs or DVDs.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture said last night that in the 10 years between 1996 and 2006 there had been 250 convictions for infringements of the Animal Remedies Act 1993. Fines totalling €950,000 had been imposed and 72 people were given prison sentences, 49 of which were suspended.

It is understood that the department decided to visit Mr Hennessy "to see if he complied with the rules" following "media reports of positive blood tests in the UK on a dog called Heart Rumble trained by him".

At Kilkenny District Court it emerged that Mr Hennessy had purchased the products using the internet from Nature Vet, an Australian company which sells a range of products "to optimise the health and performance of your animal".

The company, based in Glenorie, New South Wales, has a website page marked "for residents of Australia" and export customers are referred to a separate "export site", which contains information for the "international market".

Figures supplied by Bord na gCon show that Mr Hennessy was the leading Irish greyhound trainer in 2006 "based on prize money" when dogs trained by him won a total of €521,000. He has trained The Late Late Show for RTÉ's Pat Kenny and Lotto Princess for the Leinster Lawn syndicate, made up of TDs including John O'Donoghue, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism.

Last year Bord na gCon became engulfed in a row about the board's failure to publish test results for the banned substance EPO. In November 2005, Bord na gCon's control committee interviewed Mr Hennessy and another trainer, John Kiely, after dogs they trained tested positive for the substance. Both men were fined €1,000 and ordered to return prize money.

Mr O'Donoghue then appointed Tim Dalton, former secretary general of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, to carry out "an independent assessment of corporate governance and related matters affecting Bord na gCon".

According to Bord na gCon, "Mr Dalton concluded that greyhound racing is by and large a clean sport and that infringements are quite low and are falling", but that "in the interests of transparency and of maintaining confidence in the sport" recommended "a more complete separation of doping control from the other activities of the board".