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Greyhound Action E-mail Newsletter #3 Autumn 2003

Victory at Liverpool! - plans for greyhound track rejected

Following an eight month campaign by local residents and greyhound protection activists, plans to build a greyhound stadium in Fazakerley have been thrown out by Liverpool City Council - making it the third time in four years that proposals to open a new greyhound track in England have failed.

As soon as the Greyhound Racing Association (GRA) submitted its planning application last October, opponents of the proposed track swung into action and an organisation called Red Alert Fazakerley (RAF) was formed to fight the plans. The name "Red Alert" came from the fact that the proposed track threatened a nearby wildlife haven, which was home to a colony of red squirrels, but the campaign was also fought on the issues of greyhound protection and disturbance to local residents by increased traffic, noise and drunken punters.

Thousands of leaflets were distributed to local residents, meetings with councillors held, and hundreds of letters and e-mails sent to planning officials and members of the city council.

The GRA, the largest greyhound track proprietor in the country, which already owns seven other stadiums, was quietly confident that the plans would be accepted, but on June 24th the planning committee emphatically rejected the proposals at a meeting attended by dozens of protesters.

In turning down the application, chair of the planning committee Lady Doreen Jones said: "We are not dealing with gambling or animal rights and although all political parties are as one, it is not a political issue either. The applicant has failed to adequately demonstrate any need for the development in this area. There is not enough public transport and not sufficient accessibility other than by private means."

The planning committee wasn't officially allowed to take moral issues into consideration when arriving at its decision, but there is little doubt that committee members were influenced by information about the mass slaughter of dogs caused by the greyhound racing industry and the fact that the GRA has an appalling record with regard to injuries to dogs on its tracks.

Our heartfelt thanks to all those who wrote/e-mailed the Liverpool City Councillors. There is no doubt that your letters/messages have made a difference. The GRA can appeal against the decision, so we are not totally out of the woods on this one yet, but will keep our supporters informed of any future action that needs taking.

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Big success for GA events

The three national events which Greyhound Action held earlier this year all turned out to be extremely successful - and our gratitude goes out to everyone who took part.

Greyhound Awareness Week took place at the end of May and was supported by dozens of local animal protection groups and concerned individuals all over the country, with street stalls being held in many different towns and cities as well as demos outside greyhound tracks and betting offices. Thousands more signatures were obtained for our petition to ban greyhound racing and a large number of people educated as to why they should boycott the dog tracks.

There were lots more betting office demos on Saturday, June 28th, to mark Greyhound Derby Day of Action, which coincided with the running of the Greyhound Derby Final, the biggest event in the British greyhound racing calendar. Punters and other members of the public were asked not to bet on greyhound racing and, as with Greyhound Awareness Week, a considerable amount of publicity was obtained in local newspapers and through interviews on local radio stations.

More excellent publicity was achieved in relation to Greyhound Remembrance Day on Sunday, July 27th, when greyhound protection campaigners (accompanied by rescued greyhounds) laid flowers outside more than a dozen greyhound tracks in memory of the hundreds of thousands of dogs which have died at the hands of the British greyhound racing industry since the first race in the UK, 77 years ago. The Day formed part of International Greyhound Memorial Weekend, which consisted of over 50 events in the USA and several European countries.

We intend to hold the three events once again next year and will let all our supporters know the relevant dates nearer the time.

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...and for our website

which is helping to educate thousands of people every month about the death and suffering caused by the greyhound racing industry and has led to a huge rise in support for our work, since it was set up last November. www.greyhoundaction.co.uk has won widespread acclaim for its design and content.

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Going local

Greyhound Action is in the process of setting up local branches all over the country to campaign against their nearest dog tracks and encourage people in their areas not to support greyhound racing - and, north of the border, Greyhound Action Scotland was recently formed, with one of its primary aims to get greyhound racing banned by the Scottish Parliament.

Our decision to set up local branches has come about because of the increased level of support we've been receiving in recent months. We are a voluntary organisation, with mostly part-time workers, and unless we decentralise quickly, we won't be able to deal with the growing level of requests and inquiries we are receiving.

If you'd like to be involved in a Greyhound Action branch, please let us know and we will ask our local coordinator for your area to get in touch with you.

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Socially unacceptable

There are far less die-hard greyhound racing enthusiasts around these days, so the racing industry is relying more and more on the attendance of ordinary people to stop the tracks from going out of business.

One of the ways it does this is by encouraging local companies and social clubs to organise trips to the dogs - so we were very pleased to receive the following message from one of our supporters.

"I wrote to you recently asking you to send some info to the social club at my work ...........excellent news, the race night trips have disappeared from the itinerary and have even disappeared from the web pages of 'successful trips we've organised'.
This company employs 700 people or thereabouts and were taking coachloads to Wimbledon. Thanks for your help. These things really do work and if more people can let you know which companies are organising these trips so you can educate the right people, this can take away a lot of their funding."

This is just one example of many instances where our literature has persuaded people not to organise works and social club outings to greyhound racing.

If you hear that a club or firm in your area is organising such race trips, please don't hesitate to send them one of our leaflets (available from us free of charge), together with a polite letter asking them not to go to the dogs.

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In their own words

Below are just a few recent extracts from a pro greyhound racing internet forum. Makes interesting reading!

"I personally think that greyhound racing deserves all the flak it gets from the AR mob. WE are all supporting an industry where healthy dogs can to be PTS (put to sleep) on a wholesale scale, without anyone receiving punishment. Some track kennels are STILL not up to scratch, yet they are allowed to remain open, and owners are still supporting these tracks. Trainers are allowed to staff their dogs on a 1 to 30 basis."

"The GRA cut backs have continued with further redundancies this past week and track closures are edging ever closer. The antis are blocking all attempts at opening new tracks in the knowledge that they are slowly but surely strangling an industry that is already in serious decline....Track closures across the board in the next few years are as sure as night follows day." (GRA = Greyhound Racing Association, who run 7 greyhound tracks in England)

"........ you want to know what’s chasing from 10-12 months - the sooner you know the sooner you can cull....... Anything that does not chase or will not go around with another and then chase - I would not keep - unless they are a very fine specimen - If they don't chase from the start part with them!"

"......a lot of the bitches bred both in UK and Ireland should not be bred, inferior bitches and studs are used, rearing is maybe questionable, and the result of these matings often pups with a short life and a trip to the vet.…."

".......another man I know put a whole litter asleep because they would not chase ...........I’m not saying I agree with it but you just can’t find 8 homes that easy over here for retired greyhounds.........."

"So what do you suggest I do with pups that do not chase, injured, or not able to grade. Come on let’s take off the blinkers & face up to the realities of our sport. Think it is time to confront the antis by coming clean. Is it really so bad that a few dogs are PTS .........?"

for more info check out the "Tracks of their Tears" section of this website click here

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Still waiting at Wallyford

In our Summer 2002 newsletter we reported the sad news that plans for a new greyhound stadium near Wallyford (a few miles from Edinburgh) had being given the go-ahead by East Lothian Council, despite intensive opposition by greyhound protection campaigners.

However, the good news is that there has, as yet, been no progress with the building of the stadium because of problems with finalising the planning permission for a business park which forms part of the overall project.

If you would like to be sent the printed version of this newsletter (which contains photographs) please let us know.

Greyhound Action

PO Box 127, Kidderminster, DY10 3UZ

Tel: 01562 700 043 Fax: 0870 138 3993

info@greyhoundaction.org.uk

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