THOUGHT ID SHARE PART OF A RECENT GH PROJECT I DID FOR MY VET NURSING COURSE - MAKES REALLY INTERESTING READING & TOOK WEEKS OF RESEARCH. GOT 100% BTW... :)



Animal anthropologists generally agree that the Greyhound-type dog is one of the seminal canine breeds from which virtually all domestic dogs descended. They can be traced back over 8000 years to early cave drawings and decorative artefacts.

The first knowledge of the Greyhound comes from the Tomb of Amten, in the valley of the Nile, regarded by Egyptologists as belonging to the 4th Dynasty (2900-2751BC)
.
In Egypt, the ancestors of the modern Greyhounds were used in hunting and kept as treasured companions; the birth of such a hound was second in importance only to the birth of a son. The favourite hounds of the upper class were mummified and buried with their owners.

The Greeks bought these hounds from Egyptian Merchants some time before 1000BC. Art and coins from Greece depict hounds virtually identical to the modern Greyhounds making it fairly certain that the breed has changed very little since 500BC.


During the ensuing centuries, Greyhounds became extremely popular and spread through the near East and Europe, eventually arriving in Britain. Here they became a status symbol bred for nobility.

In the 10th Century, King Howel of Wales made killing a Greyhound punishable by death. King Canute of England established the Forest Laws in 1014 stating that;

“no meane person (commoner) may keep any greyhounds”


Coursing races became very popular during the 16th Century. Queen Elizabeth 1 of England (1533-1603) had Thomas, Duke of Norfolk draw up rules judging competitive coursing. These rules were still in effect when the first official coursing club was founded in England in 1776 and have not changed a great deal since this time.

By the turn of the 19th Century the advertising of dogs available for stud for a fee became available. This was a dramatic change from the past, when breeders would never allow one of their champions to sire a dog that might compete against them one day.
Formal coursing meets reached their peak of popularity in the late 1800’s and some, such as the Waterloo Cup, are still held today.



Greyhounds were imported to North America in large numbers from Ireland and England in the mid 1800’s not to course or race, but to rid Midwest farms of a virtual epidemic of jackrabbits and coyotes that were ruining farms and livestock. Americans soon discovered that Greyhounds could be a source of sport and the first national coursing meets were held in Kansas in 1886.

The US cavalry used Greyhounds as scouts to help spot Native Americans, as the Greyhounds were fast enough to keep up with the horses. General George Custer reportedly took his 22 coursing Greyhounds with him when he travelled.

The evolution from coursing to track racing began in 1876 when the first mechanical lure was used in England. The lure was a stuffed rabbit set upon a long rail that ran straight for a long distance, then went into a brushy blind. This proved unpopular and was dropped in favour of enclosed coursing. It was not until the early 1900’s, when an American, Owen Patrick Smith, developed a lure that could be run in a circle on a track such as horse used, that racing began to be considered as a sport.

Greyhound racing has become one of the most popular spectator sports in America. Attendance at tracks was nearly 3.5 million in 1992 with over 50 tracks in America running a total of 17,000 performances, over which fans wagered almost 3.5 billion dollars.


USES: YOU BET...THEY DIE


Three separate breeding lines exist: racing, coursing and show Greyhounds. Racing Greyhounds are bred for speed, coursing Greys for a combination of speed, endurance and courage, and show Greys for appearance.

Once the favourite pet of pharaohs and kings, in modern day the greyhound is merely the means to an end for an intrinsically cruel and unnecessary form of gambling.
In dog racing, there is only one ultimate goal : PROFIT. And when the graceful Greyhounds don’t meet that need, most are expendable.

‘They call it an “exciting sport”.
They say that it’s humane,
But a sport that always ends in death,
To me, is not a game’
Anon.



For one reason or another thousands of Greyhounds find themselves unwanted each year, the numbers reach genocidal proportions. An estimated 90,000 Greyhounds were born to produce the 30,000 racing in Britain in 1998. Less than 10% of these would have their rightful lifetime. Most of the others would not make 4yrs old. Their murders would range from clinical to barbaric!

Documented “disposal” methods have historically included:

- Euthanasia
- Sale/donation to medical research
- Mass euthanasia (i.e. drowning in quarries/lakes)
- Abandonment
- Gunshot
- Sale to racing interests in the 3rd world countries
- Starvation
- Electrocution
- Bludgeoning
- Hanging from trees (& then often set alight)
- Drowning with bricks around necks
- Ears cut off to prevent identification from ear tattoos
- Beaten to death
- Thrown alive off bridges



The figures and images are sickening. A Greyhound that cannot chase still costs £2000/yr in kennelling bills compared to the cost of a bullet!

As industry revenues decline, the number of dogs bred each year has correspondingly dropped as breeders are forced to close their breeding operations. However, thousands of Greyhounds continue to die each year because not even the 200+ Greyhound Adoption Groups across Britain can handle the huge number of dogs still produced by the industry.



-- Edited by Suzanne at 20:14, 2005-03-16