Greyhound Action Scotland is an campaign group established to raise awareness of the plight of the racing greyhound with an ultimate aim for a total ban on greyhound racing in Scotland.
This would outlaw breeding training and racing greyhounds for sport.
Round the world things for greyhounds are bleak.
Reports of inhumane destruction of greyhounds in Australia are common place. Some people ship their ex-racing dogs to Korea to be used as food. We also have reports of Aussie hounds being used as shark bait.
Spain has horrific welfare conditions for greyhounds which are shipped from Southern Ireland to race. The only track in Spain, Barcelona is one of the worst tracks for injuries in the world. Barcelona track closed its doors early 2006 and we hope they stay firmly closed. Retirement nearly always means death for these hounds. Spain also have atrocious conditions for the Spainish Greyhound or Galgos who are hung from trees at the end of the hunting season.
Seven states in the US have banned greyhound racing to date and there are several more looking at banning the so called sport. This is due to Welfare grounds alone.
In the Netherlands, Greyhound racing is a family day out, its on flat tracks and no money changes hands. Its not a ‘sport’ as such.
Italy no longer has greyhound racing after the last track in Rome closed a few years ago following the owners bankruptcy.
France, Germany and other European countries don’t have racing as such, although Cyprus is in the process of establishing a track. France and Germany rehomed many retired greyhounds from all over.
Both the North and South of Ireland have horrific conditions for greyhounds. Northern Ireland may be part of the UK but the UK body doesn’t take Northern Ireland into its fold. Therefore Northern Ireland greyhound racing is completely unregulated. Greyhounds are livestock in Ireland not pets and are rarely, if ever rehomed. Ireland is the main breeding place for greyhounds in the world.
Greyhounds are the oldest recorded breed of dog. They are the only breed mentioned in the Bible. They can be traced back to ancient Egypt and are the seventh fastest animal on earth. They run at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour but are short distance sprinters.
Up until 100 years ago, killing a greyhound resulted in a penalty of death. The greyhound was used for hare coursing and commoners were not allowed to own greyhounds – royalty only.
The status of the greyhound today has very much changed - they are now the 'disposable' dogs
On 27th July 1926. the first greyhound racing took place at Bellevue in Manchester. The sport had come from the US where it had started a few years before. The sport did take off and stadia opened all over the country.
Today greyhound racing is a Billion pound industry, but its one in decline. Several tracks have closed over the last ten years and most notably, Walthamstow and Wembley willl probably close shortly. Both are seen as leading tracks. However its not just stadia that makes money. Greyhound racing makes more for the bookmakers than horse racing. The introduction of the televised bookmakers service is where the money is.
With the billion pound industry comes the disappearance of greyhounds once they have finished racing. Greyhounds, on average, start racing at the age of two. The average career length is just 18 months. The industry does not produce figures or any indication on what happens to greyhounds upon so-called retirement.
Some are abandoned or given over to rescue. Some go to Ireland to be used for stud. What we do know is that some die under horrific circumstances. Injected with substances like petrol, diesel, creosote is not unusual. Shooting, drowning and clubbing are not unusual. We have one guy in the Lanarkshire area who will shoot a greyhound and bury it on his lime scale land for a tenner. The BBC managed to get footage of this guy for the Kenyon Confronts programme however they decided not to air the footage because they had more ‘interesting’ film from down South. This is a similar set up to the recently exposed County Durham case where David Smith was exposed as having killed 10,000 greyhounds. We believe there are places like David Smith's throughout the UK.
There are persistent rumours are that within the grounds of two country parks in Scotland are mass-graves.
Ear removal isn’t unusual because of the dogs tattooed ear marks. This way the dog cannot be identified.
Fionn was found in Ireland with his ears and some of his scalp removed. This is not unusual, but normally its just the flaps of the ear to remove the tattoo mark. This dog was found last October and is currently recuperating in a foster home in Wales.
The greyhound racing industry is huge. There are really two parts. One is the ‘licensed tracks, the other is independent and what is known as ‘flapping tracks’.
The ‘licensed industry’ is the one that causes the mass breeding – thats where the money is. Its also where most of the issues lie. There are three parts to the licensed industry.
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National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) - This is behind the registration and running of stadia etc.
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British Greyhound Racing Board (BRGB) – which deals with the rules of racing including inquiries into things which may bring the sport into disrepute
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British Greyhound Racing Fund (BRGB) – the ‘welfare’ fund which deals with things such as the upgrading of tracks and the Retired Greyhounds Trust which is the industry’s welfare arm. They rehomed about 2000 hounds per year. The RGT is continually used to promote how the industry cares for their dogs on retirement. The reality is that its simply a smokescreen
There is currently only one licensed track in Scotland, Shawfield at Rutherglen. The priority of the industry is gambling – money making. The waste product for want of a better phrase is the greyhounds – they’re commodities. Most greyhounds come from Ireland to race on UK tracks. Trainers are licensed and can have up to 30 dogs at one time. Greyhounds racing on NGRC tracks must live in licensed kennels and there are all kinds of rules.
The tracks are inspected prior to racing by an NGRC official. There is a vet paid for by the NGRC in attendance. There is also stewards present to ensure that the sport is not brought into disrepute. And dogs are randomly drug tested by the same lab that tests race horses for drugs. There are penalties brought against any trainer that removes a dog from a race for any reason – like injury, track or weather conditions.
Shawfield Greyhound Track:
• Is the only Licensed NGRC track left in Scotland
• Is in a bad state of disrepair with three of the four terraces closed and overgrown
• Conditions for greyhounds ‘barbaric’
• Profits of £1/4 million in 2002
• £1.6 million in reserves
There is planning permission for a track at Wallyford, East Lothian which will be the biggest track in Europe if built however although building was started a few years back, it appears to have ceased shortly afterwards and we cannot find any more information.
The independant tracks:
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Five left in Scotland: Gretna, Ayr, Corbiewood at Stirling, Armadale, Thornton in Fife
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Known as ‘flapping tracks’ or ‘flappers’
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Tracks are licensed by the Local Authority
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There is no vet in attendance
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Run independently - they frequently close then re-open or change hands
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No ‘rules’ or drug testing etc
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Blamed by the licensed industry for the mass death and destruction although the licensed industry admit they sell dogs from their tracks to be used on these tracks.
These tracks are likely to be regulated in the near future
BREEDING
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Excessive Breeding of greyhounds– mostly in Republic of Ireland
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In 2000, 25,000 greyhound pups registered. More may have been bred but not included in these figures
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90% of greyhounds on UK tracks are Irish Bred
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Pups ‘culled’ at early stages if no good for racing
Meet Spiral Nikita.
He’s one of the top stud dogs in Ireland. Aged 11 years old and still being used for Stud. 5,982 known offspring. His stud fee is 1800 euros and he’s kept at a stud farm. He’s the second top dog with another Top Honcho beating him by to date being sire to 6,767 pups.
"you want to know what is chasing from 10 - 12 months - the sooner you know, the sooner you can cull - the cost of bringing a hound from 12 months to 18 months is most costly…" [Irish breeder]
The greyhound pup is born often in a yard or field of some kind. Usually kennelled with other pups. At 12 weeks, if he makes it that far, someone from either the Irish Coursing Club or the British Stud book will come along and ear mark him. Usually he will be given a racing name then. At about 15 months training will begin. At 18 months he’ll be taking part in the puppy races. After this he may either be sold privately or taken to one of the many greyhound puppy auctions.
GAS and Advocates did some undercover research at the Greyhound Puppy Auctions in Dublin and Peterborough in 2004. This highlighted a number of concerns. This was covertly filmed with a video camera however the film is very long and not yet edited. We witnessed various things and managed to get in tow with a dog dealer who openly told us about shooting dogs. I ended up buying one dog who was going to be shot because they’d tried to sell her at 3 sales and she wasn’t worth the dog food…
At the age of two the dog will start racing.
“I've seen too many bad / fatal injuries to dogs through poor track management, dogs clearly leading hitting a dead patch causing fractures or severe muscle injuries”
[Greyhound Owner]
“She slipped on the third bend and her shoulder blade fractured and came straight through the skin. Within fifteen minutes, she was put to sleep by the local vet,” [Trainer]
The biggest danger to the greyhound at this stage is injuries. These dogs run at such high speeds that injury of some kind is inevitable. Greyhounds have paper thin skin which tears easy. Quotes like this are not unusual. Some greyhounds die racing – others are killed after a track injury like a broken leg simply because the trainer / owner doesn’t want to waste the time and money of allowing the dog recovery time.
Drugging greyhounds is not uncommon with all kinds of drugs from street drugs like Hash and cocaine to steroids and brufen.
Oscar
This is Oscar. Oscar was raced at Shawfield but had an untreated fracture to his ankle. He was retired form Shawfield but sold on to a flapping track to race. Oscar is now 7 years old and is on a strong painkiller every day as he has arthritis. We don’t’ know what the future holds for Oscar as the pain relief no longer seems to be working.
His owner is currently trying alternative therapies.
So how many injuries are there to racing dogs? These came from one single edition of the racing post.
Extract from Racing Post [one edition]:
SINGLE FILE, who shattered his hock in what trainer Tom Foster described as the worst injury of this type he had ever seen during the Pall Mall semis at Oxford, has been put to sleep.
KNOCKEEVAN MAJOR, one of the leading Irish fancies for the English Derby, has been retired to stud after sustaining a serious gracilis muscle injury during the Produce Stakes at Clonmel on Sunday
AROUND ALONE EXCITING prospect Around Alone had to be put to sleep after shattering his stifle when baulked and knocked over at the first bend in heat two of the John Smiths Breeders Cup at Nottingham
FULL CIGAR sustained a stress fracture
LATE LATE SHOW, hailed the People's champion in Ireland, has run his last race after a freak accident at Shelbourne Park recently
CUCCIOLO NERO has fractured a hock bone
HOLLINWOOD HERO sustained a wrist injury on Peterborough Puppy Derby final night and has been retired to the breeding paddocks
We asked a group of racing owners:
What happens to all the retired greyhounds and greyhounds that are not suitable for racing in Ireland and the UK?”
Answers:
• A large majority are put to sleep
o There's no escaping that fact - not enough money comes in to the sport to cater for dogs that don't race.
o You will struggle to get an honest answer to your question.
o All I can do is answer for myself. Any dogs that are not able for racing being that they are injured, too slow or no good are put to sleep. It is not something I am not proud of admitting but I am a little tired of the hypocrisy relating to dogs.
o Why do we relate to them with such reverence against other animals that we rear and slaughter for food. After all we do not have to rely on them for nutrition, as any vegetarian can prove, so the answer is we rear and slaughter them for our pleasure, not our needs. [Irish breeder]
However the NGRC say that racing owners must make every possible effort to rehomed retiring greyhounds. The NGRC also stand by that this happens and there are rarely, if ever, any action taken against owners who don’t attempt to rehomed their dogs.
Many other dogs are simply dumped on independent rescues. The rescues are under funded and over stretched but frequently trainers and owner use threats of destroying a dog if the rescue refuses to take the dog.
The Retired Greyhound Trust (RGT) is the industry’s welfare wing which the industry regularly trot out to show that they do care and they don’t destroy healthy hounds. However…
• NGRC claim to put much emphasis on retiring racing dogs
• No record is kept of whereabouts of greyhounds once retired
• RGT is industry’s rehoming wing
• RGT only accounts for a very small percentage of greyhounds
“So what do you suggest I do with pups that do not chase, injured, or not able to grade?
Come on lets take off the blinkers & face up to the realities of our sport.
Think it is time to confront the antis by coming clean.
Is it really so bad that a few dogs are killed?”
[Irish breeder]
There are racers we know of who inject dogs with bleach, feed them rat
poison and tie the dogs to railway tracks or let them loose on a
motorway, I was nearly killed trying to chase a beautiful brindle male
along the M74 (Glasgow) who was frightened out his wits,
someone had just let him loose there.”
[Greyhound Rescue]
The privately run greyhound rescues are over run with dogs. Most are too frightened to be associated with us in any way. Four dogs were killed in an incident last year out of spite when it was discovered that these dogs were coming to us.
A few examples of some dogs rescued;
Ali
Ali weighed just 13 kgs when rescued. He should have weighed double that. The dog he was rescued with died a few days later. They’d been found in a shed in Aberdeen with carcasses of dead greyhounds.
There was no prosecution and the woman owner went on to get more greyhounds.
Bones
Bones has a similar story. Close to death for weeks afterwards he was pulled from a trainers kennels in Fife.
This is Bones two years on!
Oscar
This is Oscar. Oscar was used as warm-up bait for a dog fight. He was rescued and has been rehomed.
Elle
Elle was one of my most harrowing rescues. She weighed just 17 kgs. She had open weeping sores all over her body. But she had a huge personality! Elle is now a healthy weight and lives with another 5 greyhounds and a wolfhound on an estate in Fife.
Lizzie
Lizzie 2yr old greyhound that was found in an abandoned building with builders rope around her neck. Her crime was that she was no good at racing. When found her eye was so bad it had to be removed.
The chances are that if she had received treatment earlier it probably could of been saved
Muppet
‘Muppet’ had over two years racing at Perry Barr, raced every other week in BAGS type races – 119 races which is extensive for a greyhound. It came to light after looking into Muppets history and behaviour problems that the kennels he was kept at, regularly trained their dogs with Live bait. Muppet was always kennelled alone as he attacked a bitch. He still lashes out when he wants something he can't have...e.g. shiatsu!! Hence he is muzzled all the time when out.
His behaviour problems...dog-dog aggression, dog-people aggression and personal space issues. He isn't normal but it isn't his fault. He raced till he was nearly five years old. It has come to light that he may have a touch of arthritis in his front leg and after x ray, it shows an old injury.
He has been through the mill with tests for Hypothyroid and all kinds of things. After much review they attributed his crazy hair loss not to Hypothyroid but to testosterone induced baldness. Something that would happen after prolonged steroid abuse for example.
What is wrong with the industry?
“there are always greedy, callous people who will be happy to kill a dog rather than look after it. we all know that this takes place with far too much frequency, at the 'top' tracks as much as the others.”
[Greyhound Trainer]
• The average career of a racing greyhound is just 18 months
• Thousands of greyhounds are bred each year to supply the industry
• There are not enough homes for all the greyhounds when they retire
• Profits made by bookmakers make the dogs big business
• The Greyhound Racing Industry refuses to acknowledge that there is anything ‘wrong’
Welfare reforms – the way forward?
The League Against Cruel Sports state:
- Just one penny in every pound bet on greyhound racing would:
- Every greyhound could be properly recorded and monitored throughout its life.
- Every racing greyhound could have proper veterinary care and research could be funded to help them safely extend their racing careers.
- There would be enough greyhound shelters and re-homing programmes to find homes for all retired greyhounds and young dogs that cannot race
Greyhound Action Scotland cannot see how this would help in real terms.
• There is no independent body to enforce this and no body could ever be ndependant enough to ensure dogs don't suffer
• There are not enough homes for current stray non-greyhound dogs
• Greyhounds are harder to home due to their lifestyle
• No amount of money will create homes that just aren’t there
• No reforms would effectively stop the mass slaughter
Dispelling the Myths...
- MY UNCLE HAS RACING GREYHOUNDS… HE CARES ABOUT HIS DOGS!
If you 'love' your dog, do you risk it to injury or even death running round a tight track every week for YOUR own pleasure? Do you breed from your greyhound knowing that 25,000+ other greyhounds are also bred each year, (most not making the racing grade) and knowing that these dogs are massively over bred and you are just contributing to the issue? If you 'love' your greyhound, do you find someone else to take it on because its no longer any good for racing?
If you 'love' your greyhound do you dump it on a rescue who are massively underfunded and massively overstretched, then justify it to yourself by saying at least you didn't kill it? If you love the breed, then why breed/buy more dogs, then rehome them when they're no longer any good to you in a country where thousands of non-breed greyhounds are put to death because there are no homes for them? If you 'love' your racing dog, why the hell are you involved in an industry that kills healthy dogs?
If greyhounds mean THAT much to trainers/breeders, then why aren't they out there looking after the dogs which this sick industry disposes of each year?
