Compassion News

Write to your MP for Greyhounds

Thank you for writing to DEFRA recently to complain about the proposed self-regulation of greyhound racing (see earlier news item) 

Now we have to make ourselves heard by  Jim Fitzpatrick, the Minister of State (Food, Farming & Environment) before the final proposed regulations are debated by the Houses of Commons and Lords in October/November.

Please find below the facts to use in your letter/email to your local MP.  You can find your local MP at http://www.writetothem.com/

TELL YOUR MP:
 
· The UK gambling industry is supported by 30,000 racing greyhounds per annum plus at least as many again being prepared for racing.
 
· The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) produced a report about the welfare of greyhounds in May 2007.  The report is called: "The Welfare of Greyhounds: Report of the APGAW inquiry into the welfare issues surrounding racing greyhounds in England". 

· The APGAW report revealed that the regulated greyhound racing industry in England produces a minimum surplus of 13,478 greyhounds per annum and of these a minimum of 4,728 greyhounds is unaccounted for.
 
· The APGAW report also stated that "there are enormous gaps in industry records of numbers of dogs" and  "these figures must therefore be regarded as conjectural and are likely to be a significant underestimation of the true scale of the problem of unwanted dogs being destroyed".

· The APGAW inquiry was undertaken in response to the Sunday Times revelation in 2006 that over the last 15 years Mr. David Smith had been shooting ex-racing greyhounds in the head with a bolt gun, in return for £10 per dog and burying them on his land.

· The Sunday Times has revealed other instances of greyhounds being killed once surplus to the industry's requirements:

-In 2006: Leigh Animal Sanctuary (Manchester) was exposed for killing ex-racing greyhounds by allowing unqualified staff to administer a lethal injection into the chest of the dog.  The sanctuary charged £35 for each euthanasia.  According to trainers interviewed at the time, Leigh Sanctuary had been putting down healthy ex-racers for years.  They estimated that thousands of ex-racing greyhounds, once past their sell-by date, had been killed there.

-In 2008: a knacker's yard in Hertfordshire was found to be despatching surplus greyhounds with a bolt gun for £20 for quite a few trainers from far and wide.  Apparently the killing cost about 2p and the incineration took the rest of the £20. Greyhound industry rules stipulate that dogs should be put down only as a last resort and always by a vet. 

· The Sunday Times coverage has referred to the Inland Revenue's annual income of £70m from greyhound racing.
 
· Time and time again members of the voting public approach charity volunteers on our monthly street collections to voice their disapproval of an apathetic industry and the amount of money the Inland Revenue makes at the expense of these poor dogs.

· The regulations proposed by DEFRA concentrate only on welfare at the track.  If implemented, they will ignore "off-track" welfare, which is where the cruelty revealed by the Sunday Times occurs.
 
· The cases of greyhounds being killed with the bolt gun will not be prevented by DEFRA's proposed regulations. 
 
TELL YOUR MP TO ASK THE DEFRA MINISTER FOR:
1.          No self-regulation, only independent regulation will do
2.          One system to track all greyhounds from cradle to grave
3.          One injury database open to public scrutiny
4.          Independent regular inspection of trainers' and breeders' kennels
5.          Greyhounds to be transported in cages which enable them to stand up and turn around
6.          Greyhounds to be euthanased by a vet only if rehoming is not an option (e.g. behaviour / irreparable injury)
7.          Vets to be specially trained and have financial independence

 

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