Nearly 6,000 greyhounds were killed for not racing fast enough in 2017, a new RTÉ investigation claims.

RTÉ Investigates: Greyhounds, Running for Their Lives, is set to air tonight (26 June) at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and it claims that in 2017, a consultancy firm was paid €115,000 to carry out a business analysis report on behalf of the Irish Greyhound Board.

The report stated that 16,000 greyhounds are born each year, of which 5,987 are killed because they fail to make qualification times or their performance declines.

The report also stated that an estimated 1,000% more pups are bred than are actually needed to race.

The document also proposed comprehensive reforms of the sport, which the documentary claims were not adopted by the IGB.