Killing field of the dog racing industry

JENNY · Big Cheese

RE: Killing field of the dog racing industry

emma · Guru

What are these petition signers thinking of? The mind boggles.

Em

greyluvver · GAL Membership Co-Ordinator

Unbelievable!!!

Isla · Enlightened One

Appalling, disgusting, horrific, heartbreaking. That's just what is repeatable!

Dave · Enlightened One

Seems to be no end to the story, from the Sunday Times this morning..

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2361675,00.html

Isla · Enlightened One

It just keeps getting worse doesn't it!

I can't believe how people can be so heartless. I reckon that Buxton should be injected in the chest and dumped in a freezer herself!

The "warned off" the sport and fines imposed are a joke! Fines for animal cruelty are just not enough.

Breaks my heart!

greyluvver · GAL Membership Co-Ordinator

This is a disgrace, sickening, disturbing.... the only good thing is that this is being exposed!!!

Gail · Big Cheese

I'm with you Karen, this Buxton woman has the nerve to call her business a "Sanctuary", someone needs to teach her what that word actually means

I felt physically sick reading this and i'm sure many others will too, it's unbearable thinking about the sadness that must be in these dogs eyes as they meet their death in this awful way.

Isla · Enlightened One

What really upsets me is that dogs are so selfless and giving. These poor souls will have given their all trying to please the humans that look after them/own them and this is how they are repaid! There certainly isn't much compassion or humanity shown to them. These people have the temerity to call themselves animal lovers. I don't see much evidence of the dogs' welfare coming into stories such as these!!! I'm ashamed to admit that they are of the same species as I am!

glendy · Master

The Leigh Sanctuary staff have been getting threatened...

itv.com article

JanW · Master

glendy wrote:

The Leigh Sanctuary staff have been getting threatened...
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Shame.... how unfortunate for them to have to deal with threats. But the good news from the article is:

"They also announced they would no longer be accepting unwanted greyhounds due to the "extreme" threats from animal rights activists."

Gail · Big Cheese

I'm a firm believer that two wrongs don't make a right but if these people are willing to work in an enviroment where healthy dogs are being slaughtered then they have as much sympathy from me as they give to the animals.

It's a shame that yet again it has taken bad publicity for them to change a policy that should not have existed in the first place

weeewelamb · Old Hand

This whole issue brings about some very worrying consequences and poses several questions that need to be answered.

Let’s look at some of the cold facts:

Owners / trainers were taking greyhounds to David Smith and Leigh Animal Sanctuary to be destroyed --- fact.

The greyhounds in question were no longer of any use to the racing industry or their owners --- fact.

The greyhounds were taken to be destroyed because their owners / trainers were no longer prepared to look after them --- obvious fact.

Question 1. What is now happening to all the hounds that would have been destroyed now that these two places have been exposed?

Are the trainers now keeping the dogs and allowing them to live out the rest of their lives in their kennels? Providing them with warm beds, plenty good food, exercise and mental stimulation? I think not!

Are they now living warm, comfortable lives at someone’s fireside? I think not !

Or have they been “disposed of” by some other method?

Question 2. Are owners / trainers in other areas of the country now avoiding using these “disposal centres” and slinking off into the bushes with their surplus dogs?

The owners and trainers who treat greyhounds as a disposable commodity are not about to flick a switch and suddenly become compassionate or feel any form of responsibility towards the dogs. If they want rid of a dog, believe me, they will get rid of it! If they don’t have someone or some organisation willing to take or destroy these hounds for them, then they will do the nasty deed themselves and I, for one, would sleep better at night knowing that those greyhounds were not now being taken to some remote spot and clubbed to death!

Question 3. If greyhound racing is allowed to continue, as seems to be the case, then what is going to be the alternative to destroying greyhounds once their racing careers are over?

The rescue centres up and down the country do a sterling job but are full to overflowing and taking into consideration the vast numbers of hounds we’re talking about --- where are they all going to go? As most of us on the forum know there’s a limit to the number of dogs you can take on, depending on your personal circumstances, and supposing we all took on one extra dog, that is still a drop in the ocean. There simply are not enough homes available for all these dogs.

I cannot wait to see what the result of the NGRC inquiry is and what action is taken, if any, regarding the after care of the hounds and how they are going to police it.

As for Lord Lipsey’s comment regarding the killing of greyhounds being restricted to “the odd bad penny” he must think we lack a certain level of intelligence and I’m sure we all believe his statement as much as he does!

greyluvver · GAL Membership Co-Ordinator

Hi Julie,

I can see where you're coming from - as yes, the methods of disposing of unwanted greyhounds could get a lot worse now!

But one thing that sticks in my mind is - 'the very high number of greyhounds bred for racing would need to be drastically reduced to make a difference on the amount disposed of'.

Isla · Enlightened One

It's a horrible thought about the fate of these greyhounds and very pertinent questions Julie. It is truly depressing the way human beings treat these poor dogs. Hopefully, as also mentioned, they will cut down the numbers being bred and that will reduce the numbers needing rehomed. Last thing anyone wants is the whole sorry affair being driven underground.

Dave · Enlightened One

There's a couple of points here on the whole LAS story, the first isn't connected with Greyhounds, I'll come to them.

The simple fact here is there's too many dogs in this country, too many unwanted pets and too few homes, irresponsible breeders, irresponsible owners and puppy farms are the contributers to this epidemic of unwanted dogs. Now look at the rescue centres, like LAS, who operate on a commercial basis, a contract with their local council to take stray dogs will, in general, cover the cost of a dog staying in these centers for 2 weeks maximum, after that the dog becomes uneconomical. Todays society dictates we live for financial profit so what will those centers do when the dog becomes uneconomical?...Of course, the dog gets killed, plain and simple, we're talking £££'s here not proper animal welfare. I donlt ave an answer to the problem of so many dogs, bringing back dog licences might help the issue and make people think twice about owning and breeding dogs, reduction in the costs of neutering would also help, proper controls over breding and puppy farms is also well overdue.

Onto the Greyhounds, I've said this before on this topic, the NGRC who operate the sport in the UK do not condem the act of killing a Greyhound, as long as it's done humanely they are comfortable with this. In the eyes of the law the trainers that handed their dogs into LAS to be PTS did not one single thing wrong, the thing I'd like to focus on is this, OK, so it's not a legal crime but surely it's a moral crime for this to happen. Anyone got the number for the moral police in this country? fraid I don't......

Laura · Master

I did a class talk about 'Cruelty in the Racing Industries' last year. I covered both greyhound and horse racing and showed people show pretty horrific pictures, but what got them the most was the way the animals were killed. Many of them taken to be shot, beaten to death, starved and often injected with household cleaners. I think I did a pretty good job exposing the horrible world of cruelty. This was before we had Rosie and I didnt know very much about GAL but I would definately mention GAL in anything to do with Greys now!!

Sorry if someone has already posted a similar thing, but I havent read all the posts proparly and wanted to do this as soon as I could.

carolineasb · Old Hand

Julie

I totally agree with you - it's just too horrible to think what the trainers are doing now!

Years ago, my Mother worked for a Vet who hated docking dogs's tails, but he did it as the lesser of 2 evils. If he hadn't, the breeders would have done it themselves & may have caused untold misery to the dogs. He longed for the day when the Kennel Club did not look for Boxers, Spaniels etc with short tails.

Caroline

Laura · Master

carolineasb wrote:

He longed for the day when the Kennel Club did not look for Boxers, Spaniels etc with short tails.
Caroline

I really dont like the look of dogs with docked tails. Dogs need their tails for swimming etc and its so unnatural for them to just have a stub.

Although, farmers tend to dock spaniels tails as this stops the tail getting broken when they are running through undergrowth. There are always two sides to every arguement.

Santas Little Helper · Master

Update

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6173887.stm

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-13556552,00.html

My heart bleeds for him - He says the investigation has caused him a lot of distress

JENNY · Big Cheese

Well at least he is being prosecuted for something. However it should be for the lives he has cut short rather than illegally dumping waste!!

Gail · Big Cheese

The poor man is devastated by all of this!!!!!!!!!! He can't be that easily upset as killing healthy animals in a garden shed didn't seem to bother him one little bit

He says the whole thing has caused him a massive amount of distress...he seems to forget it also made him a massive amount of money. My sympathies lie with the poor dogs and i'm only sorry they could not prosecute him with more than illegal dumping.

Isla · Enlightened One

"Massive amount of distress", "devastated" - is he taking the p*ss???

I can't believe he can come away with crap like that! I hope they throw the book at him for whatever charges they can get him on - the more the better!

Isla · Enlightened One

Realise I may be just a tad late with this one but there was an article in Dogs Monthly (I think that's what it's called) about a group of MPs going to meet greyhounds from Battersea Dogs home recently to let them see what they are going to be working to help.

Not much help, I know, as I can't remember the article now however at least it's progress. If I can find it on a website, I'll try and post where to look.

Siouxsie · Enlightened One

http://www.k9magazine.com/viewarticle.php?sid=15&aid=1759&vid=0&npage=