The industry’s necessity to achieve UKAS accreditation and the implementation of imposed welfare changes, without any increased funding from the gambling industry, is already proving disastrous for the GBGB.
The introduction of new kennel inspections, micro chipping and drug sampling, have culminated in the Greyhound Trainers Association chairwoman – Norah McEllistrim – calling for a ‘Vote of No Confidence’ in the GBGB and Stuart Lock-Hart, who represents greyhound owners on the GBGB board declaring ‘I believe the CEO’s [Ian Taylor] position has become untenable and he should resign’.
The Racing Post’s coverage of the rows also forced an impromptu meeting to discus what Jim Cremin – the greyhound editor – has described as ‘the biggest crisis the sport has faced in the 36 years I have worked within it’
[b]Please click here to read the full article [/b]
[url]http://www.greytexploitations.com/resources-and-reports/gbgb-in-crisis[/url]
The industry’s necessity to achieve UKAS accreditation and the implementation of imposed welfare changes, without any increased funding from the gambling industry, is already proving disastrous for the GBGB.
The introduction of new kennel inspections, micro chipping and drug sampling, have culminated in the Greyhound Trainers Association chairwoman – Norah McEllistrim – calling for a ‘Vote of No Confidence’ in the GBGB and Stuart Lock-Hart, who represents greyhound owners on the GBGB board declaring ‘I believe the CEO’s [Ian Taylor] position has become untenable and he should resign’.
The Racing Post’s coverage of the rows also forced an impromptu meeting to discus what Jim Cremin – the greyhound editor – has described as ‘the biggest crisis the sport has faced in the 36 years I have worked within it’
Concerns were immediately raised over a new kennel inspection form, which had been hastily produced following the exposure of the Eve Blanchard’s kennels.
The new criteria details a time consuming inspection of the premises and of individual greyhounds by an RCVS registered vet. The form’s accompanying guidelines stipulate ‘All dogs should be inspected and be free from signs of disease including bed sores, and dental disease’ and ‘All greyhounds must be free from external parasites’. The inspecting vet also has to certify whether a dog has any infectious diseases.
In an interview to the Greyhound Star, Norah McEllistrim responded to the perceived extra costs, stating ‘Knowing the exorbitant charges administered by some vets, that could work out to hundreds of pounds that we simply don’t have. If the GBGB want the job done, then they should pay for it because we cannot and will not!’
In order to pacify the trainers and dismiss the extra cost as minimal, the newly installed Veterinary Director – Simon Gower - has trivialised the inspection of dogs, stating ‘‘When kennelling dogs for racing, a vet should be able to examine 80+ dogs within a 30- 40 minute period. I would expect that a suitably trained veterinary surgeon would be able to do the same during a kennel visit’.
Mr Gower also sates ‘As a guide, local authority inspections of boarding kennels can be expected to be charged at up to £120, and I would anticipate that most greyhound trainers kennels would command a fee of up to this. The welfare of our racing dogs is the prime concern for us all’
Despite Mr Gower’s apparent concern for the welfare of racing dogs, he fails to consider in his comparison of £120, the local authority inspection of boarding kennels do NOT include the inspection of any animals but focuses purely the establishment.
However, perhaps Mr Gower would care to make a video similar to the ‘Microchip Training Guide for Vets’ – showing us exactly how a greyhound can be diagnosed free from infectious, dental and skin diseases, in less than 30 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qRaYgHAs5M
The next issue of contention has been the introduction of micro chipping, which the GBGB claim will be a requirement of the new welfare regulations, as yet to be announced following Defra’s recent consultation.
However, a six month pilot scheme conducted earlier this year by the GBGB has - not surprisingly – been unable to dismiss any long term welfare problems associated with micro chipping a working racing greyhound.
Although the GBGB Veterinary Director Simon Gower assures us the Datamars chip is ‘least likely to migrate when inserted by a vet’ – many trainers remain unconvinced of the safety and the need for both micro chipping and earmarking, resulting in a campaign for micro chipping to be withdrawn.
http://greyhounds-r-us.com/
Regardless of the welfare concerns, there is insurmountable evidence the chip can be removed, replaced or reproduced and will do nothing to improve the traceability and therefore the welfare of greyhounds.
The most recent and certainly the most controversial issue of dispute has been the GBGB’s covert change in drug sampling.
Reports were leaked to trainers and the media of urine samples being tampered with and pooled - in breach of Rules of Racing - before being dispatched to the HFL forensic laboratory.
Long term serving employees raised their concerns, which resulted in the swift dismissal of the Chair of the Disciplinary Committee and the resignation of a senior sampling steward.
Caught well and truly with their pants down, the GBGB attempted to excuse the tampering with forensic evidence by suggesting the ‘pooling’ was an intelligence led operation to pinpoint those tracks/races which were prone to a higher rate of drug problems and did not have the funding to run the ‘intelligence led operation’ in parallel with the existing drug sampling scheme.
Clearly an analysis of previous year’s samples would have provided this intelligence and the GBGB have since been forced to admit the covert procedure was an attempt to show UKAS they could operate independently of its stakeholders.
What the pooling of urine samples won’t have detected, of course, is any offending trainers and drugged dogs - individually.
The welfare of greyhounds has never been a consideration when banned substances and illegal drugs are administered but how very convenient for the GBGB the pooled samples will not have resulted in Disciplinary Hearings, which to the outside world would have appeared encouraging but in complete contrast to the reality of a gambling industry where drug abuse is inherent.
[url]http://greytexploitations.com/resources-and-reports/a-lawless-industry[/url]
YOUR CHANCE TO BE A VOICE FOR THE GREYHOUNDS- PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE- YOUR VOICE FOR THEM IS VITAL!!!
'DEFRA' IN THE UK (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is running a consultation on greyhound racing. Current proposals are woefully inadequate and do nothing to tackle the main causes of greyhound suffering. This is your chance to help stop the cruelty.
The 'Racing Dog Protection Act' group (RDPA) http://www.rdpa.org.uk/ here in the UK are asking people who deeply care about animals to please help them be a voice for the plight of the racing greyhound here in the UK.
RDPA were recently asking UK supporters to write to their MPs via their website, however the link to this was not available but is now working. Therefore please go to their website (as above) and click on contact your MP, then type your postcode in and it will give you the details of your local MP, then please copy and paste this important message below into your email to your MP-
This is the message you will be sending to your MP - please copy and paste this
Dear MP
As I am sure you are aware, commercial greyhound racing in the UK has long been known for its macabre cruelty towards the dogs which it exploits. I would like to express my concern about Defra`s proposed secondary legislation.
Cruelty factors
A great deal of research in this area has been completed and the following cruelty factors have been identified:
1. Culling the litter
- Owners, breeders, and trainers kill many greyhounds as puppies because they seem unlikely to be successful racers. The majority of greyhounds (75 - 80%) are bred in Ireland where it is impossible to legislate for their welfare.[1]
- There is no restriction of the age or frequency at which bitches are permitted to give birth. As a result they are bred till they drop, producing hundreds of pups in a lifetime.
2. Poor husbandry
- Dogs are kept in the most economical way possible; it is common for trainers to have 150 dogs or more. See
http://www.rdpa.org.uk/videoskn2.html- Many are kept in cramped conditions for up to 23 hours per day with little or no opportunity for play or to socialise with humans. `Due to the poor sanitary conditions they are kept in, many retired racers suffer from pyoderma or allergic skin diseases. Painful lacerations occur because of poor bedding.` [2]
3. Injuries
- Greyhound racing results in frequent injuries to the dogs, many of which result in dogs being put to sleep - It is thought that more than 4,000 dogs injure themselves while racing annually [3]
- The poor conditions in which greyhounds are bred and the nutrition which they receive in their early years affect bone condition and the likelihood that the dog will experience injury later in life. [1]
- As a result of intensive racing and training micro cracks develop and do not have time to heal prior to the next race. This causes stress fractures to occur. [4]
- Almost all greyhounds show radiological changes of carpal ` wear and tear` at the end of their careers and very often long before [5]
Regarding Defra`s proposal to record dog injury statistics but not making them publicly available (Condition 6: Injury records), I believe the public has the right to know the true, significant, scale of the problem. Based on statistics published on
www.greyhound-data.com, it becomes clear that injuries are very common, and constitute a key part of greyhound suffering.
4. Abuse in transportation
- Dogs may be transported for as long as 6 hours per day between the stadium and kennels.
- Transport provision often does not meet EU standards, conditions are extremely cramped with dogs unable to stand fully upright or turn around.
5. Abandonment
- Because of the vast number of dogs retiring from racing every year rehoming through the Retired Greyhound Trust is expensive and places are extremely limited (it is common to have to wait for 6 months to find a space).
- Some dogs often arrive at pounds after being dumped in forests / fields / motorways [6].
- In order to make dogs impossible to trace back to the owner many have been found with their ears cut off (the ear is tattooed with an identity number). [1]
- A new trend is developing which sees retired greyhounds given away by trainers and owners in free ads. As a result dogs are taken in without a home check and in many instances have ended up being kept in terrible conditions or abandoned. [7]
Defra`s proposal to make micro-chipping compulsory as a means of dog identification (Condition 4: Identification of greyhounds) represents a positive step. However, unfortunately it does nothing to take away the motivation for owners and trainers to dispose of dogs (i.e. the fact that dogs become unprofitable). The APGAW report (page 33) made reference to incidences of microchips being dug out of dogs leaving the dog with a large and open wound. This suggests that, due to the financial pressure to produce a constant stream of fast racing dogs, the commercial greyhound racing industry will always find ways of cheaply disposing of unprofitable dogs.
6. Unnecessary destruction after racing
- Thousands of retired dogs do not make it to a re-homing centre. [1]
- Even the industry backed Donoghue report acknowledges that dogs are not always put down humanely [8]
- There have also been numerous examples of dogs being killed, their ears cut off and their bodies dumped. [9]
7. Special needs pets
- The institutionalisation of dogs which takes place from birth to adulthood means that some take a long time to be re-homed (over 12 months); others are entirely unsuitable for adoption. [10]
- These are dogs with behavioural problems, extreme timid-ness or who are simply just so overwhelmed by the world outside the kennel doors that they experience adjustment problems or separation anxiety. [11]
- Retired dogs may have health problems; old untreated injuries and arthritis caused by the intensive racing and training regime which racing greyhounds are put through. [12]
8. Difficulty to rehome other dog breeds
- Dog rehoming charities in the United Kingdom face a massive task in finding homes for all the abandoned and unwanted dogs. 18 stray dogs of other breeds are put to sleep every day just because homes could not be found for them. [13]
- Finding more homes for an additional 9000 greyhounds retiring every year only serves to exacerbate this problem.
References
[1] The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW), The welfare of greyhounds (2007)
[2] Dr. Karen M. Michalski Veterinarian`s guide to the medical care of the retired greyhound
[3] Ongoing analysis by
www.rdpa.org.uk[4] J. L. Tomlin,1 T. J. Lawes,2 G. W. Blunn,3 A. E. Goodship,2 Peter Muir1 Fractographic Examination of Racing Greyhound Central (Navicular) Tarsal Bone Failure Surfaces Using Scanning Electron Microscopy
[5] Identified by vet, David Poulter in his lecture on greyhound injuries (1991)
[6] The Fate of Racing Greyhounds and Working Lurchers in Wales, Welsh APGAW (2003)
[7]
http://greytexploitations.com[8] Lord Donoghue Independent review of the greyhound industry in Great Britain (2007)
[9] BBC News Greyhound found with ears cut off (2009); and BBC News Greyhound left to die in bin bag (2006)
[10] Based on conversations with rehoming organisations
[11]
www.retiredgreyhounds.co.uk[12] David Poulter Greyhound Injuries (1991)
[13]
www.dogstrust.org.uk/press_office/press ... survey.htmI feel very strongly that that these cruelty factors are not addressed by DEFRA's proposed changes.
The unnaceptable treatment of dogs is a direct result of the over-breeding which continues in order to fuel the greyhound racing industry. The need to make a profit takes priority over the welfare of the dogs resulting in an industry which causes the unnecessary and untimely death and mistreatment of thousands of greyhounds. Greyhound racing is currently operating in isolation of the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act and Defra`s proposals do nothing to address these fundamental issues.
The secondary legislation process represents an opportunity to ensure that the full powers of the Animal Welfare Act are enforced. If this is achieved, it would be possible to make greyhound racing animal welfare friendly. Unfortunately, the current proposed changes fall a very long way short of achieving this. They do not address in any way the fundamental problems of over-breeding, frequent injuries and subsequent abandonment and destruction of dogs.
I would like to take this opportunity to urge you as my local MP, DEFRA and the Government to take stronger action in order to ensure that greyhound racing ceases to be in breach of the Animal Welfare Act. The proposed changes as set out in the Racing Dog Protection Act (see
http://www.rdpa.org.uk/Act.html) are, I believe, the only way in which greyhound racing can continue in a way which safeguards the welfare of racing dogs. The RDPA proposes that betting on greyhound racing should be banned. The initiative has been created to adequately protect racing dogs because current animal protection legislation is failing to do so. The RDPA therefore, circumvents the animal protection laws and addresses the root cause of the problem, namely the industry`s requirement to make a profit.
Similar action has also recently been taken in Massachusetts in the USA. On November 4th 2008, on the basis of a ballot, the electorate voted in favour of a ban on betting on greyhound racing. This has been a landmark decision for greyhound welfare lobby groups around the word. It was the first time that a commercially successful greyhound racing industry has been forced to close down through political action. It offers a precedent for future activities of similar campaigns around the world.
Please respond to the public`s growing discontent on this issue and ask DEFRA to re-draft their proposed changes to include a ban on betting on racing dogs as set out in the Racing Dog Protection Act.
I would like to thank you in advance for your consideration of this important issue.
Yours sincerely
END OF MESSAGE
This is our one chance to make a difference now, so please use it.
Please forward this vital appeal to all your contacts for maximum publicity. THANK YOU.
Never before has there been so much media attention as there has been recently on the subject of the plight of the racing greyhound. There is more than enough proof now, particularly more recently with the many greyhound deaths, mutilations, injuries etc that have occurred here in the UK and Ireland that we have been reporting to our supporters.
This clearly demonstrates that the only way to end this massive needless suffering of sentient beings is to ban this so called sport.
Many thanks for your support
Greyhound Crusaders/SWAP team UK
'Pioneers for change'
"The future depends on what we do in the present". - Mahatma Gandhi
Every voice counts!!!