Sudden dog deaths on the racecourse, a poor quality of life and canines on cocaine: it is time to stamp out this out-dated ‘sport’.
When I picked up my rescue greyhound from his final race in the summer of 2017, I don’t think I was fully aware of what a barbaric practise greyhound racing can be.
New Zealand recently banned greyhound racing because too many dogs were being injured.
Figures from the GBGB (Greyhound Board of Great Britain) show 109 deaths at trackside and 4,238 injuries at its 20 tracks in 2023. That figure, out of a total of 15,000 active racing greyhounds in the UK, is too high.
Despite the shocking statistics coming out year after year, Britain is yet to follow suit. There are still 19 GBGB licensed tracks currently operating in the UK.
In 2023, 55 greyhounds were put to sleep because they were unable to be rehomed and the industry did not have a use for them anymore.
My dog is one of the lucky ones.
Disgustingly, there have been a number of reports across the country of racing greyhounds testing positive for cocaine at stadiums.
In March 2019, a disciplinary hearing of the GBGB was told how a dog called ‘Sniffing Out’ tested positive for the class A drug at Crayford stadium, south-east London, in summer 2018.
In 2022 the BBC reported that 13 dogs tested positive for doping at Scotland’s only regulated race track, Shawfield Stadium, between 2018 and 2019.
It is even more shocking when you take into account how much doping could be slipping through the cracks.
Campaigners from Scotland Against Greyhound Exploitation (SAGE) said in 2022 that Shawfield Stadium performs drug tests in just under 2 per cent of races.
The industry is clearly beyond reform and is inherently harmful to dogs at its core.
Greyhound racing brings great shame to sports and has no place in the modern sporting landscape.
