Killing Field Of The Dog Industry

[cycas]

i need some official stats for the dog figures in the grey industry please.

 

if anyone can point to an non biased source (I trust the figures at grey action etc but need them to be from an "official" source) I would be grateful.

 

had had a quick look on rspca and dogs trust sites but couldnt see any figures

 

If you are aiming to convince someone who is dubious about figures coming from the rescue perspective, http://www.ngrc.org.uk/default.asp?articletype=Fact%20Sheets gives the ngrc 'official' figures just for the 31 registered tracks : there are also 21 unregistered ones. The numbers are still scary.

 

The figure that shocked and convinced my sceptical accountant husband was the sheer number of Mollydog's registered siblings and half-sibs. From one stud, not even a particularly well known one: 4684registered puppies: more than the RGT rehomes in an entire year. 520 a year for 9 years!

[kats n greys]

Taken from the NGRC website

 

 

How many new dogs come into racing each year?

The NGRC registers about 11,000.

 

 

Where do new dogs come from?

More than three quarters come from Ireland.

 

 

What happens to greyhounds when they retire from racing?

Many hundreds of owners and trainers take their retired runners into their own homes after their racing careers are over and many are retired to Ireland for breeding. Some are found new homes privately and some are found homes by the Retired Greyhound Trust (RGT). Most of the 31 NGRC licensed tracks have their own retired greyhound homing schemes. The primary responsibility for the retired greyhound is with its owner.

 

 

What is the Retired Greyhound Trust?

The RGT is a registered charity that finds homes for retiring greyhounds and on occasions cares for greyhounds until appropriate homes can be found.

 

 

How many greyhounds are found homes by the RGT?

Since 1974 the trust has found new homes for more than 35,000 retired greyhounds.

 

 

Who funds the RGT?

Each year the RGT receives £850,000 from the British Greyhound Racing Fund.

 

 

Is it true that the RGT has a waiting list?

The RGT has 120 subsidized kennels with trainers in Britain. There may be a short waiting list.

 

 

How does the NGRC work with rescue kennels or local authorities?

The NGRC is happy to give details of a dog’s last registered owner to assist the Police, vets, RGT and local authority wardens.

 

 

Are many greyhounds destroyed each year?

Unfortunately we do not have any figures. Often the general public include other breeds, such as lurchers and whippets in the greyhound category, therefore, accurate statistics are difficult to collect.

 

 

In 32 years the RGT have rehomed 35,000 greyhounds, but they have registered 352,000 approx 10% of all the dogs registered.

 

Working together with the Retired Greyhound Trust

The Retired Greyhound Trust co-operates with the NGRC on many levels to ensure that the welfare of greyhounds is maintained.

• The RGT receives weekly updates from the NGRC registry; this enables it to have updated information to aid their work. Conversely, the NGRC obtains weekly ownership updates from the RGT, which collects these changes of ownership details from regional branches across the country.
  
• The RGT reports all NGRC registered strays to the NGRC. These incidents subsequently become inquiries, which are brought to the attention of the NGRC Stewards.
  
• The RGT re-homes approx 3000 greyhounds per year, nationwide.
  
• The British Greyhound Racing Fund’s support for the RGT exceeds £850,000 per annum.
  

So if you accept that the 11,000 registered per annum and don't count the ones that don't make it or the ones like Lloyd who's earmarking belongs to another dog .

 

 

 

 

 

[Yeti]

update on letter writing

 

I have just received the following message asking for further letters to be sent to Ben Bradshaw.

 

According to a small article in today's Times, Ben Bradshaw has ordered the greyhound racing industry to hold an investigation into claims that as many as 10,000 dogs were shot at the end of their racing career. The article says that he has told the NGRC that any member who disposed of their dog in this way should be disciplined or expelled.

 

Please write to him to urge the government to undertake the inquiry and take action on the results. Relying on the NGRC to conduct its own inquiry is not satisfactory. Besides, in doing so they run the risk of being accused of cover ups. Transparency is the name of the game.

 

Ben Bradshaw

Minister for Animal Welfare

Defra

Nobel House

17 Smith Square

London SW1P 3JR

 

It seems to me that the greyhound racing industry should not be conducting an enquiry themselves, neither should they be allowed to self regulate. I say this for the two following reasons:

1. If they did not know what was/is happening to greyhounds after the end of their racing, it demonstrates an incredible degree of incompetence. If they are incompetent to such a degree they should not be permitted to investigate or regulate themselves.
   
2. If they did know what was/is going on, it shows a total disregard for the animals at the very least, and therefore they should not be permitted to investigate or regulate themselves.
   

I will be including this view in a letter to Mr. Bradshaw.

[Melp]

This is a draft to Ben Bradshaw It's only a draft and obviously needs tweaking. I don't expet anyone to agree wih it, it's my personal view.

 

 

 

Pleased with what's happend re investigation so far but feel it's important for you to understand that this person and the many others like him have done nothing illegal according to animal welfare regs [bolt gun]. Making him a scapegoat does not solve the issues.

 

The real question is how the NRGC treats [or mistreats] the thousands upon thousans of dog that pass through their hands and what happenes to them when they retire. It's not enough to introduce humane killing by lethal injection, bolt guns are already considered humane. These dogs should NOT be dying in their thousands full stop!

 

By the most conservative estimates, 12,000 dogs retire per year. The official RGT figures indicate that they rehome 3,000. If you double that figure toinclude private rehomings by trainers, rehomings by greyhound rescues and other rescue organisations that still leaves 6,000 dogs "lost". Whilst I welcome your investigation, I would ask you to widen it to look at the fate of ALL registered dogs.

 

This investigation must hear evidence from more than just the NRGC and it's findings must be made public. I have some suggestions;

 

1) All dog racing must be licensed.

 

2) A code of conduct for the treatment of animals with independant views heard and taken account of. The enforcement od that code should be independantly verified [by the RSPCA or other neutral body]

 

3) The NRGC contributes £850,000 per year to the RGT who rehome approx 3,000 dogs. Given that the industry [including betting] turns over in the region of 800 Million [conservative estimate based on accounts from Perry Bar track and multiplied by 31 and given that the Govt get 70m intaxes at 15%] the NRGC should be contributing at least 5m to the RGT per year.

 

Short of banning racing altogether, the industry must be made accountable for every dog during it's racing career and retirement according to his Governments animal welfare policies.

 

 

 

Like I say this needs writing up properly.

 

 

 

If we are to organise any kind of demo it needs to be done quickly. This is never going to happen in London at the speed it's required. Any demo has to be big enough to make an impact but there's not a cat in hells chance of getting anything organised in Parliament square if at all. The best you can hope for is Hyde Park and even then, only if you get permission.

 

My own personal view is that regional demos will be better, all on the same day still and only if enough people are prepared to go to each venue. Between 5 and 50 people just isn't enough.

 

Everyone who has contributed to this thread wants to do something, Hope also have plans. Why are we waiting for another organisation to start the ball rolling? Who is on the commitee? Has anyone here volunteered for it or been asked to join it?

 

I have a suggestion. On Friday morning why don't we all get together on MSN [all includes Hope and anyone else involved], draw up a proper plan of action and list our objectives. Nothing will happen if everyone waits for someone else to do the work.

 

If we can throw personal baggage out the window "we" and I mean we as a very large number of people across the net, can do something good.

[Gill (Northampton)]

If we are to organise any kind of demo it needs to be done quickly. This is never going to happen in London at the speed it's required. Any demo has to be big enough to make an impact but there's not a cat in hells chance of getting anything organised in Parliament square if at all. The best you can hope for is Hyde Park and even then, only if you get permission.

 

My own personal view is that regional demos will be better, all on the same day still and only if enough people are prepared to go to each venue. Between 5 and 50 people just isn't enough.

 

Everyone who has contributed to this thread wants to do something, Hope also have plans. Why are we waiting for another organisation to start the ball rolling? Who is on the commitee? Has anyone here volunteered for it or been asked to join it?

 

I have a suggestion. On Friday morning why don't we all get together on MSN [all includes Hope and anyone else involved], draw up a proper plan of action and list our objectives. Nothing will happen if everyone waits for someone else to do the work.

 

If we can throw personal baggage out the window "we" and I mean we as a very large number of people across the net, can do something good.

Morning

 

Good letter/post Mel

 

Although the very word "committee" fills me with dread, I did volunteer to help and posted via DogPages, although this was before Vanessa's email went out.

 

FULLY agree with what you're saying; let's ignore "differences", right now something needs to get done and soon. A bombardment of letters/emails etc is fantastic but in parallel to this, IMO nothing beats an actual mass presence on the streets (or wherever) and will show the world's media that this is NOT going to go away and be swept under the carpet!!

 

I appreciate London will be hard to arrange quickly (although I am believer in anything is achievable) but not everyone can get there, so maybe the answer is large, regional gatherings, but of course, essential that the whole thing is co-ordinated across ALL organisations/the net etc so everyone that wants to be there can be at one of the gatherings on the same date.

 

I just looked on DogPages and Vanessa posted at midnight last night:

 

"I have had a fantastic response to my email - as far away as France even. I need to co-ordinate the responses and will post with some more news/ideas tomorrow"

 

This IS going to be big, people are stirred up all over the world.

 

Anyway, I can be available on Friday morning and am more than happy to do whatever it takes to help and also to act as any kind of "go between" between here and DogPages. At the risk of repeating myself we MUST all work together on this one....

 

Gill

[Gill (Northampton)]

"Ooh - I have another idea! How about someone at the front pushing a wheelbarrow with a fake dead greyhound in. The image in the photos had such an impact. Then the greyhound and barrow could be delivered by a small group only to either No 10, Parliament or the NGRC office (or all 3) together with a letter - not a petition or anything - a simple letter signed Animal Lovers United or something"

 

Now that is a VERY, very good idea from Vanessa.

[Melp]

Sorry but I don't agree with the wheelbarrow thing. That's confirming the assumption that there's one guy killing the dogs and we all know he's not.

 

Sometimes shock tactics work, remember the dead horse the pro hunters used? but more often than not [and again in my opinion] they don't. You'll be labelled as fanatical loons

[cycas]

I must say I liked the idea of leaving a flower for every one of the 'disappeared' better. Gives a much clearer idea of the problem of volume than one dead dog.

[Annie]

I must say I liked the idea of leaving a flower for every one of the 'disappeared' better. Gives a much clearer idea of the problem of volume than one dead dog.

 

 

 

That is a great idea and as you say will show the volume of the atrocity much better

[Gill (Northampton)]

Sorry but I don't agree with the wheelbarrow thing. That's confirming the assumption that there's one guy killing the dogs and we all know he's not.

 

Sometimes shock tactics work, remember the dead horse the pro hunters used? but more often than not [and again in my opinion] they don't. You'll be labelled as fanatical loons

My interpretation of this was that it would be intended as a "symbolic" representation of ALL such people, however they kill/abuse/abandon the dogs.... but you do have a point of course re this one guy.

 

And yes, I agree, the flowers is a good idea cycas.

[Marian]

Happy to support you guys, whatever you decide is best to help these beautiful Greyhounds.

 

We will write to our M.P. David Treddinick as we are based in Leicestershire.

 

By way of more practical help, we have a photcopier if anything needs copying.

 

Marian, Phil, Becky, Jamie and the beautiful Buddy x

[Melp]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT.

 

For anyone wishing to remain anonymous for whatever reason, Pingu has created a new subforum here

 

http://www.rykat.org/forums/index.php?showforum=79

 

This forum is open to guests from anywhere and will be the main forum for discussing this particular topic regarding the plans for demos, commitees etc. We will not ask you to reveal you original user name but the forum will still be moderated, ie, personal attacks will not be tolerated.

 

Thankyou very much Rick

 

 

 

Abigail, Cindy etc, please copy this link if you feel people will be happy to post here

[Melp]

It does for you Abigail because you;re logged in as yourself. If you want to be anonymous, log out For anyone who isn't a member they can just post on that forum as a "Guest"

[ReikiAnge]

Abigail, if you log out, you can still enter and post in the Greyhound Protest forum (I just tried it) and then you can post as a guest if you'd prefer

 

Edit, sorry typing at same time as Mel.

[Melp]

We iz twins