#needgone

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.