In the UK and Ireland, Greyhounds are
raced around a track to determine the fastest dog. Behind the scenes in
this billion-pound industry, the picture is far from perfect. Thousands
of greyhounds go missing every year, many put down, others dispatched
with a bullet to the head or a brick around the neck. The League Against
Cruel Sports http://www.league.org.uk/
is campaigning to help protect these animals from this fate. On
Tuesday The League will launch its forthcoming report on greyhound
racing in Britain.at the British Houses of Parliament in London. The
launch is already picking up some good press coverage. The article
below appears in the Independent on Sunday today.
The mystery of the 1,000 greyhounds who retire and then vanish
By Rosamund Unwin, October 26, 2014
Every
year, one in eight greyhounds “disappears” at the end of its racing
career, with some dogs being sold for research and dissection, a leading
animal welfare charity claims.
The
League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) estimates that around 1,000 of the
approximately 8,000 greyhounds retiring from racing annually are not
rehomed and are unaccounted for.
Although
the industry’s governing body, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain
(GBGB), requires owners to register retirements and provide information
on the fate of each dog, they are not obliged to provide any supporting
evidence that a new home has been found. Some unwanted dogs are known to
be returned to Ireland, where the majority were originally bred.
A
report to be published this week reveals that some unwanted greyhounds
were sold to a university which slaughtered them and used them to teach
anatomy to veterinary students.
University
College Dublin admitted buying 33 dogs last year, the report by the
LACS and GREY2K USA, an American greyhound protection organisation.
The
majority of former racing dogs are rehomed by the Retired Greyhound
Trust, which is part-funded by the racing industry and independent
charities, or directly by owners and trainers. However, while the GBGB
said the industry was “striving to ensure that no greyhound is
unnecessarily put down once its racing career is over”, its retirement
form includes the category “injury not treated on economic grounds” as a
reason to euthanise a dog.
The
report also raises concerns about overbreeding, as some pups will never
make it to the track because they are too slow or they will not chase
the mechnical lure.
The
charity is launching its report on Tuesday at the House of Commons and
is calling for independent scrutiny of the industry, alongside the
tracking of dogs from “cradle to grave”.
“We
are releasing this report as self-regulation of the industry hasn’t
worked,” said Michael Stephenson, director of campaigns at the LACS.
“They had their chance and they have failed. We think the industry needs
proper scrutiny. The public are completely unaware of what happens
behind the scenes – it is an industry shrouded in secrecy.”
In
2006, there was a national outcry over the treatment of racing
greyhounds after The Sunday Times reported that more than 10,000 healthy
greyhounds had been shot and buried in a mass grave in County Durham
over a period of 15 years.
This
prompted two inquiries: the cross-party Associate Parliamentary Group
for Animal Welfare, which called for an independent regulator, and one
by the greyhound industry, chaired by Lord Donoughue of Ashton. The
Government accepted Lord Donoughue’s view that the industry could
self-regulate.
Lord
Donoughue told The Independent on Sunday that conditions had improved
since 2006. “More could have been done, but in a difficult industry,
progress has been made,” he said.
While
the greyhound racing industry is in decline, there are still 33 tracks
in the UK of which 24 are regulated by the GBGB. Another nine “flapping”
tracks are not licensed by the GBGB and therefore do not need to abide
by the same rules of racing.
Last year, owners registered 7,520 greyhounds to race in Britain, of which 6,203 were Irish-bred.
The
LACS is also concerned at the conditions in which some greyhounds are
being kept during their racing careers. Many are now being kept at
off-track kennels and are only let out of for short periods.
Earlier
this month, a trainer and a track were fined by the GBGB for failing to
prevent the death of a dog. The greyhound, Harry’s Queen, died last
year at Henlow racing stadium from suspected heat stroke. A hearing was
told that the air flow into the kennels was uneven and that an exposed,
hot metal duct would have raised the temperature. Henlow was fined
£5,000, while the trainer, Hazel Kemp, was ordered to pay £500.
A
spokesman for the GBGB said: “No registered greyhounds are unaccounted
for. However, we do not make public all the data we have pertaining to
them.” He added that “non-chasers” were rare and “usually detected
before registration”, which would mean they do not come under the GBGB’s
care.
Defending
self-regulation, the spokesman said they worked with animal welfare
groups such as the Dog’s Trust and the RSPCA to “improve welfare
standards”.
http://www.league.org.uk/~/media/Files/LACS/Publications/Greyhound-Report-2014.pdf
