#greyhoundracing

That is a sentence used by practically every pro-greyhound racing supporter at some stage during any greyhound racing argument. And there’s a kernel of truth there, you can’t stop a dog from running, and Greyhound do indeed love to run and have a genetic instinct to chase. But what happens when the dog doesn’t want to run?

This is Greyhound “Songful Bird”. She is 23 months old, born and bred in Ireland, exported and racing in the UK. Whilst being loaded into Trap Two at Kinsley Greyhound Track, Songful Bird very clearly did not want to enter the box and struggled to get away from the steward/handler. She made a break from the box but was pinned to the ground by Four grown men and roughly manhandled back into the trap. Upon leaving the box, she veers dramatically across the track, almost clipping another dog and endangering the rest with her erratic running pattern. This is not a dog running for fun, but a dog, panicked and running in fear.

Songful Bird very clearly did not want to race at this occasion, and despite her attempt to flee, was forced into a situation where she was distressed, roughly handled and potentially suffered physically injury but the grown man falling ontop of her or the resulting blind panic run away from her aggressors. The race should have been stopped at the first sign of issue, or the very least, Songful Bird should have been pulled from the running. But the bookmakers were already set up and ready, and for them, the show must go on.

Very telling that none of the stewards present felt anything was wrong forcefully shoving the dog into the trap, and that neither a track vet or welfare officer stepped in at any point to remove the clearly distressed dog from the situation. If welfare was truly at the heart of Greyhound Racing, Songful Bird would not have been put through this abuse.

If you love Dogs, Dont Support Greyhound Racing.

There's a phrase that floats around the Greyhound Rescue World that makes the hair on all seasoned rescuers neck stand on end. "Need Gone", usually accompanied by a short deadline. Greyhounds who don't earn their keep simply have to go, and if there's no rescue space available, well, then they'll be dealt with in other ways, and will still be gone by the end of the week.

The calls often come on "Dump Day", Monday morning. After a weekend of racing and vets clinics being closed, Monday brings trainers to the door, dogs in the back, to be put to sleep. Then come the desperate calls from the veterinary staff. "Can you take a greyhound?", "Do you know anyone who will take a Greyhound?", "Space for a Greyhound?".

And the reality is there never truly is space. Kennels are already full. Hounds who have waited their turn on wait lists, hounds saved from the kill list in pounds, hounds picked up off the side of the street, and often, last week's Need Gone Grey's. The desperate calls to every rescue in the country might pull up a short term foster or an emergency kennel space but it's never a proper solution and just puts even more strain on already overburdened rescues. The GRI and Pro-Racers claim that most Greyhounds are rehomed, but continue to count Greyhounds being dumped on private rescues as rehoming.

I recently had a discussion with a trainer who didn't see anything wrong with "moving on" hounds from their kennel to a pound for 'rehoming'. They claimed that "We can't keep them all" and didn't see any issue with that statement. One of the hallmarks for an ethical, responsible dog breeder is 'backup for life', in which a dog can always return to the breeder for rehoming should the home situation go belly up. For Greyhounds, overbred by 1000% by the gambling industry's demand for fast dogs, this statement doesn't apply. Breeders churn out litters, cherry pick the fastest and to hell with the rest. They are only "wastage" right? To them, the dog has to earn a kennel space, and if it's not earning it's keep, then it simply has to go.

No other dog sport requires such a high turnover of dogs to function. You'll never see an ex-flyball dog on the kill list in a pound, or a rescue dedicated to ex-agility dogs. And why is that? Because those are actual dog sports, where people and their pets compete for fun, a few titles and perhaps a small prize. Greyhound racing is an industry, built on overbreeding, exploitation and discarding of healthy dogs to the tune of 6000 a year according to industry commissioned reports.

The latest "need gone" call came, as usual, on a Monday, and featured four greyhounds in need of rescuing. Two young dogs, around two years of age, and two older dogs. The second I heard "Four Greyhounds", my heart sank. Finding space for one hound is difficult enough as is, let alone four. The fact that the dogs were apparently nervous, particularly one of the older ones didn't help the situation. By the end of the day, I'd say every rescue this side of the country was involved in finding space for these hounds, and unfortunately, one did end up being euthanised. Three out of four is a miracle on such short notice, but I cant help but mourn the one. The one hound who never got to know life outside of the industry built around her exploitation. The one hound who perhaps, with time and care, could grow in confidence and blossom into a beautiful, happy hound. The one hound who didn't make it.

"Need Gone", the sentence that signs the death notice for so many Greyhounds across the country. Sounds to me that the only thing that "needs gone" is the Industry built on the exploitation of these gentle dogs. If you love dogs, don't support Greyhound Racing.

Beauty and Performance review

19th June 1936: Valuable racing greyhounds taking exercise in the grounds of Wembley Stadium protected from the blazing sun by a large umbrella.

The shiny new Greyhound Traceability system set up by Greyhound Racing Ireland as part of their Five-Year Plan to improve welfare, transparency and the viability of the industry is already failing at its main job- Tracing the whereabouts of Irish Greyhounds. The system went active in January 2021, but just over a year later we are already finding dogs slipping through the cracks. Last week we found proof of Greyhound “Walk on Sid”, now named “Bad Fella” active in the Punjabi Racing Scene, despite still being registered to his original Irish Trainers and apparently still standing in Ireland. This week we found “Sniper Jamie”.

Instagram page ‘greyhound_lovers_ posted a photograph of “Snipers Jamie” alongside his pedigree, on February 27th of this year, available for Stud (note: “meeting” or “available for meeting” is the term used in reference to mating/breeding/studding services in India). He is apparently under the ownership of the ‘Osker Grup Sudhar”.

Sniper Jame, born 15 October 2018, from a litter of Ela Ela Genie and Glenbowen Jewel, is registered on Greyhound Racing Ireland as belonging to a Mr. Kevin O’Kane, residing in Derry. Sniper Jamie raced a total of 27 Times at tracks across Ireland, for a total of €765 prizemoney. His last race in Ireland was the 31st May 2021, well past the January 2021 start time for the GRIs fancy new RCET traceability system.

Whilst Sniper Jamie is still registered to his original Irish Owner, standing in Ireland, he is clearly another dog that has been subject to export. Whilst the act of exporting and long distance travel is a know stressor for dogs, the fact that he was exported isn’t the main issue in this scenario. The issue is the fact that the new traceability system, which has been set up specifically to track and trace ALL Irish Greyhounds, is already losing track of dogs. Sniper Jamie, like Walk On Sid, is proudly displayed on social media, shown off for the world to see. Both dogs appear to be in good condition, racing in arguably safer conditions than Irish tracks, running against only one other dog on a straight track, and their owners seem to be investing considerable time and money into them, but the fact that they are still registered to their Irish owners, in Ireland, is worrying.