Compassion News

GC thoughts at the time of the DEFRA consultation

On average GC holds a street collection once per month in UK shopping centres.  It is fair to say that virtually every donor in these towns on a Saturday morning is well aware of the ills in the greyhound racing industry as a result of the Sunday Times exposé of the Seaham slaughter in 2006 and of the killing of greyhounds for £20 per greyhound by Holt's knacker's yard in Hertfordshire in 2008.  In the latter case the killing cost just two pence per greyhound and the disposal was covered by the rest of the twenty pounds. 

The Sunday Times coverage referred to the Inland Revenue's annual income of £70m from greyhound racing.  Consequently, every donor at GC street collections (regardless of whether or not they are dog owners) is abhorred by the fact that the government makes a significant amount of money on the back of a cruel industry.  The regulations proposed by DEFRA concentrate only on welfare at the track.  If implemented, they will ignore "off-track" welfare, which is where the atrocities we have seen in the past occur. The cases of greyhounds being killed with the bolt gun will not be prevented by these regulations.  This regulatory inertia, coupled with widespread awareness of the Inland Revenue's income from greyhound racing, will do nothing to change public opinion about the government's apathy to greyhound welfare and the regulation of the industry.  The time has come for ethical taxation and independent regulation.

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