Knock Yourself Out

Carol · Master

Knock Yourself Out

Christine Young · GAL Newsletter Editor

Hi Carol

See what you mean about the amount of regulations in racing! But they don't seem so successful at enforcing at least some of them, or there wouldn't be so many greyhounds in dire straits at the end of their racing careers...

Christine

Carol · Master

Oh aye Christine,

not worth having rules if you can't break a few (dozen) along the way! I'll say no more.

By the way, great to have you back missus!!!!

Chas · Old Hand

Wouldn't these rules only apply at NRGC registered and regulated tracks? If so there are far more "flapping" tracks out there where these rules wouldn't apply!!

Chas

Christine Young · GAL Newsletter Editor

It's GREAT to be back, Carol! Hope to see you on 5th Feb at Strathclyde Park if you're there.

Not sure about flapping tracks, Chas, and please correct me anyone if I'm wrong - but I think flapping tracks are council regulated.

Christine

Carol · Master

Chas,

Yes you're right. Only 31 of Britain's tracks are covered by the NGRC regulations, with only one of these being in Scotland. The rest (20+) are 'flapping' tracks that, although licensed to the local authorities are unregulated.

This means that, among other things, they don't have to keep detailed documentation, nor do they have to have a vet in attendance at race nights.

What is interesting though, is that the NGRC is a self-regulating body so nobody is there to check that they are enforcing regulations except themselves. (Does that make sense?)

One vital point to make is this. Regardless of whether they race on an NGRC track or not, all greyhounds on racetracks are covered by the Protection of Animals Act (1911, with more recent ammendments.) This says that....

It is an offence to:

cruelly beat, kick, ill-treat, over-drive, over-load, torture, infuriate, or terrify any animal;
cause unnecessary suffering through transportation;
take part in the fighting or baiting of an animal;
administer poisonous or injurious substances without good reason;
permit operations to be carried out without due care and humanity;
cause unnecessary suffering to an animal that is being destroyed to provide food for mankind; and
the coursing and hunting of a captive animal that is liberated in an injured, mutilated or exhausted condition, or the coursing and hunting of a captive animal in an enclosed space from which it has no reasonable chance of escape.

Unnecessary suffering can be caused by acts of commission and acts of omission.

Interesting, isn't it?

-- Edited by Carol at 20:38, 2006-01-26

Amber · Master

I believe that 4 out of the 5 greyhound tracks in Scotland are flapping tracks; I was under the inpression that they have no rulebook (e.g. no rules on how often a dog can be raced etc.) as for Council regulation, really have no idea about that; I guess perhaps the council issues the licence for the premises, but I would imagine that's about as far as their involvement goes?

It seems to me the NGRC rules are not worth the paper they are written on; most of the rules are there to protect the people betting, to try and stop race fiddling, not for the protection of the greyhounds. Rule 18 is supposed to dictate what happens to retired dogs, but I think there is a £50 fine (though it may have gone up slightly) for anyone found to have got rid of a dog without their paperwork being in order. Not much of a deterrent is it?

I heard that the NGRC are supposed to be 'cracking down' on the change of ownership registration (or lack of it)... certainly, all the dogs I have owned and fostered are still registered to their previous owners (or perhaps even the owners previous to them). A dog that was rescued directly from southern Ireland was registered to one owner under NGRC and another with Irish Coursing Club. She had been sent to England to race on an NGRC track, where her trainer illegally sold her to a Syndicate - when she still had an owner in Ireland. Eventually the Irish owner got the dog back to Ireland under threat of legal action, but not because of any pressure from NGRC/Irish Coursing Club. When I phoned the Irish Coursing Club to confirm who was the last regisetered owner, they were totally blase about the fact the dog had been stolen and illegally registered under someone else "Oh this sort of thing happens all the time" she said. Well if they cannot even control the ownership dealings of dogs that are still racing, I'm sorry but there is no hope for dogs that are finished their racing careers.

At the risk of sounding controversial, it seems to me, the major problem is the application of the law, as regards racing greyhounds. For some inexplicable reason, greyhounds in practice do not seem to enjoy many rights or the practical protection of the law - although you could say the same thing about the dogs in commercial puppy farms, nothing much is done to protect dogs from these dreadful places either. I suppose a lot of the problem has always been to 'prove' that cruelty has taken place and the expense of taking perpetrators to court

-- Edited by Amber at 13:15, 2006-01-27

Dave · Enlightened One

Amber wrote:

I heard that the NGRC are supposed to be 'cracking down' on the change of ownership registration (or lack of it)...

They are cracking down a little bit now. There's no real evidence of this in the current dogs GAL are taking in, they are basically handed to us with no paperwork signed or anything however I've been contacted recently by trainers looking to confirm they surrendered dogs to us going back 5 or 6 years ago!

On a similar note GAL were contacted recently by the NGRC with a new process they wanted us to follow when taking in dogs, basically involved GAL getting appropriate transfer of ownership documents and racing documents held by the trainers, then filling in another form then sending the whole lot down to the RGT for them to 'process' then and only then when the RGT allowed us to we'd be able to home the dog, the whole process was quite nicely drawn in a data flow diagram.....I did ask the NGRC for some money to pay a full time member of staff to do all this paperwork but sadly they refused. Think my point on this is it's a bit like trying to shut the barn door but sadly the horse has bolted a few years ago PLUS none of the trainers (either flappers or NGRC ones) we deal with are really much good with the old paperwork...

Amber · Master

Well, the flappers don't need to worry about the paperwork anyway though, seeing as they're not bound by NGRC rules - I imagine a lot of the dogs you take in are from the flapping tracks, since Shawfield have there own rehoming programme with RGT?

There system does sound very cumbersome, not sure why it should be so complicated for a trainer to declare a dog gone to a rescue. I think the onus should be on the trainers to present you with the paperwork to sign on collecting the dog - it is their business at stake, not yours!

I'm guessing RGT branches are the exception, but not heard of any rescued greyhounds coming with the relevant paperwork.

Dave · Enlightened One

Amber wrote:

Well, the flappers don't need to worry about the paperwork anyway though, seeing as they're not bound by NGRC rules - I imagine a lot of the dogs you take in are from the flapping tracks, since Shawfield have there own rehoming programme with RGT?

I'd say it's probably 60 / 40 (60% flappers 40% NGRC) even thought it's not allowed a lot of the trainers we deal with run dogs under both 'codes'...

greyluvver · GAL Membership Co-Ordinator

The documentation side of things sounds like an 'administrative nightmare' especially for a charity run by volunteers. Could it become compulsory at some point?

-- Edited by greyluvver at 22:03, 2006-01-30

Dave · Enlightened One

I'm all for some sort of system where charities register what dogs they've taken from trainers, that may help to get a handle on the actual size of the problems in the UK, HOWEVER my problem really is the NGRC and the RGT being involved, it is afterall the NGRC's job to do this, they shouldn't be running after poor charities when their members (i.e the trainers) should be giving them this info, my beef with the RGT is they would probably use the figures to massage their own homing stats...

I guess my other problem is (as Lita says) it would become a bit of an admin nightmare if the process was over complicated (as it probably would be)..