Greyhound Action E-mail Newsletter #1 Summer 2002
Greyhound Awareness Week | Wallyford | Researchers needed
Victory at Coventry!
Plans for greyhound track withdrawn
On March 11th Greyhound Action received a message from an animal rights campaigner in Coventry that people living near the disused Butts athletics stadium in the city had been sent a letter from the council informing them that a company called Butts Park Ventures Ltd had put in a planning application to build a rugby stadium, together with a greyhound track, on the Butts site. Research on the internet revealed that Butts Park Ventures was owned by Keith Fairbrother, the Chairman of Coventry Rugby Club, who were selling their present stadium and looking to build a new one. The news was passed on to Coventry Animal Alliance (CAA), who immediately began a campaign against the proposed greyhound track.
A meeting was held in Coventry between members of CAA, representatives of Greyhound Action and local animal rescue workers, and a plan of action was formulated. Local campaigners set up a group called Coventry Against Greyhound Exploitation (CAGE) and produced leaflets outlining the cruelty and slaughter associated with greyhound racing and the disturbance likely to be caused to local residents by racegoers. Petition forms asking the council to refuse planning permission for the track were printed and hundreds of Coventry residents signed them at street stalls held by CAGE.
At first CAGE concentrated their efforts on leafletting and petitioning people living near the Butts and were very encouraged by the attitude of the local residents, who were almost unanimously opposed to the proposed track.
The local councillor for the area expressed his support for the CAGE campaign and gave advice on the best way to go about persuading the council to reject the track. It turned out that the Butts was actually owned by the council, so the campaign had two lines of attack - one, that the council should not allow greyhound racing, with all its associated cruelty etc., on its land, and two, that planning permission should be refused on account of the problems the track would cause for local residents.
The e-mail and home addresses of all the councillors (including those on the Planning Committee) were obtained from Coventry City Council and people far and wide were asked to send letters and e-mails requesting that the track not be allowed. People were also asked to write to Keith Fairbrother asking him to drop his plans for the track.
Further research on the internet and elsewhere revealed that Fairbrother had previous involvement in greyhound racing and some years before had built a "flapping" track in Coventry without planning permission, which he subsequently had to pull down. It turned out that he had gone bankrupt several times and owed hundreds of thousands of pounds to various people, as well as having a criminal conviction for stealing electricity.
On May 20th, thirty people and several rescued greyhounds held a picket outside the Council House (Town Hall) in Coventry city centre, and this was followed the next night by a public meeting at a hall near the site of the proposed track, which was attended by over 50 people, with the majority being local residents.
First to speak at the meeting was John from CAGE, who told of how members of the group had been to Hall Green greyhound track the previous Saturday on a fact-finding mission. During one of the races there, a greyhound broke its leg and was carried from the track screaming and eventually "put to sleep" by a vet. Later, a survey was done of local residents, who spoke of how their lives were made hell on race nights by drunken punters shouting, fighting and urinating in their gardens. John also spoke about the criminality and dodgy dealings of Mr Fairbrother.
Paul, a Greyhound Action investigator, showed some video clips exposing the cruelty and killing of dogs, as well as the fraud, associated with the greyhound racing industry. One of the videos had been filmed just north of Coventry and showed a pit full of the bones of slaughtered greyhounds and a former training kennels employee speaking of how his ex-boss, and other trainers, had shot dogs who were no longer good enough to race.
Tony from Greyhound Action then gave some general information about greyhound racing, including the facts that 50 greyhounds are slaughtered by the industry every day and each major track is responsible for the deaths of at least 500 greyhounds per year.
Three members of Coventry City Council were also at the meeting and they all expressed opposition to the proposed track. All the local residents present were also opposed to it and all vowed to join the demonstration planned for the coming Saturday outside the Council House.
A reporter from the Coventry Evening Telegraph was there too, but predictably (the paper has a history of opposition to animal rights) the next day's edition gave more emphasis to a supposed threatening letter received by Fairbrother than to the overwhelming evidence against the proposed track presented at the public meeting.
Then Saturday 25th came, and just as CAGE campaigners were preparing for the Council House demo, a phone call came through from the Evening Telegraph saying that Fairbrother had withdrawn his plans for the greyhound track. He had cited economic reasons, but it was obvious he had surrendered in the knowledge that there was no way the Council would allow the track in the light of all the evidence gathered by CAGE and the strength of the local opposition to it.
It was too late to call off the demo, which instead turned into a victory celebration, involving well over 200 people and a fair scattering of rescued greyhounds and other dogs. Champagne was drunk on the steps of the Council House and a march took place through the centre of Coventry, during which a bookmakers temporarily shut up shop after demonstrators gathered outside it. CAGE members gave interviews to local TV and radio and there was tremendous support from the public for what had been achieved.
In less than 2½ months the battle to stop greyhound racing coming to Coventry had been won, meaning that, with Canterbury in 1999, the last two proposals for new greyhound tracks in England have been defeated.
The recent Greyhound Awareness Week, which took place at the end of May, was the most successful yet, mainly because of the announcement, on May 25th, that the chairman of Coventry rugby club had withdrawn plans to include a greyhound track as part of the club's new stadium (see article above).
Elsewhere in the country many local animal rights groups and concerned individuals also played their part - and there were several demonstrations outside greyhound stadiums, and street stalls up and down the country to help educate the public not to support greyhound racing. Tens of thousands of leaflets were distributed and thousands more signatures added to our petition to abolish greyhound racing. There was a good deal of coverage in local and regional newspapers and on local radio.
Special mention must be made of the Northern Animal Rights Alliance, who carried out a whole week of action, including street stalls, pickets outside betting shops in several towns in the North-East and a demo at the Sunderland track (see pictures below and left). Also London Animal Action, who held a 30 strong demo outside Walthamstow stadium, which attracted a good deal of media coverage, including a debate on a London-wide radio station.
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Also thanks to the Marchig Animal Welfare Trust and all the many individuals whose kind donations made it possible for us to put Greyhound Awareness Week on this year.
There will be another Greyhound Awareness Week next May - and we're hoping to have an even bigger success with that one, but, in the meantime, there's no reason why people shouldn't continue to spread the anti-greyhound racing message. We have plenty of leaflets, posters, petition forms etc. available (free of charge) for anyone who wants to do street stalls, as well as useful advice and information for those who would like to hold demonstrations. Greyhounds are abused and killed 365 days a year by the greyhound racing industry. We need to be campaigning 365 days a year to protect them.
Wallyford - A Battle Lost, but the Fight Goes On!
Our thanks to all those people who e-mailed/faxed/wrote to the East Lothian councillors in an attempt to prevent the proposed greyhound track near Wallyford (a few miles from Edinburgh) being given the go-ahead. Unfortunately, despite a great deal of effort by greyhound protection campaigners, the plans for the track were just recently given final council approval.
This really comes as no great surprise, as we heard about proposals for the track very late in the day and, by the time the campaign got going, the council had already given general approval to the idea of a greyhound track.
We are not too downhearted however, as a very good movement against greyhound racing has now been established in the East Lothian area. The track still has to be built and if/when it is, it will need large attendances in order to survive. If enough people in the area can be educated about the slaughter and cruelty inherent in the greyhound racing industry, the track will not get the support it needs and will be forced to close, as has already happened to several major greyhound stadiums in other parts of Britain.
Greyhound Action Group Edinburgh & Lothian are continuing to campaign against the track. Please give them your support, especially if you live in Scotland or the very north of England.
They can be contacted by phone on 01620 829711 or via e-mail:
As mentioned above, we would have had a much better chance of stopping plans for the Wallyford track had we heard about them earlier.
We are in desperate need of volunteers to do research for us on the internet and in various publications, so that we can gather as much information as possible about the greyhound racing industry and its plans.
Please contact Greyhound Action if you can help in this, or any other way.
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Greyhound Action
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