Carl Appleton, 44, has been given an ultimatum to remove the last 17 dogs from his kennels on agricultural land in Thrigby Road, Filby, by Saturday or face prosecution.

But he said last night: "The council said I can't even keep one. I am worried some of these last ones might have to be put down because I am having trouble finding people to take them."

Council spokesman Rosie Couch said Mr Appleton had been given ample notice because a planning contravention notice had been issued two years ago. The kennel building did not have planning permission for any commercial activity.

She said: "Action was taken after complaints in the village about noise, and when council staff visited they were concerned about the muddy conditions and pens that did not appear to give cover."

However, Mr Appleton, a local builder who raced up to 60 dogs all round the country until recently, claims he is not breaching planning regulations because he is an amateur trainer and the kennels should not be classed as a commercial activity.

He insisted there were no welfare issues because the kennels were licensed by the National Greyhound Club and inspected every six months.

"I have my dogs inspected by a vet every two weeks," added Mr Appleton, who raced at Yarmouth Stadium and was attached to the new stadium in Coventry for a time.

"The council is just being bloody-minded, and I have never had complaints from neighbours," he said.

Mr Appleton, who owned most of the dogs himself, has passed a lot on to other trainers, and some are now racing at Crayford, in Kent.

Because he insists his greyhounds have been a hobby from which he has never made a penny, he is also disputing a back bill for £2500 in non-domestic rates presented to him by the council.

His father Tony, 61, from Fleggburgh, also races greyhounds at Yarmouth, and has been told to cut his number of dogs from 50 to 32, the number for which his premises are licensed.

Mike Dowling, the council's head of planning, said they had been concerned by the large number of greyhounds being kept at the Filby kennels for several years.

He said: "Extensive negotiations to bring the property back into the permitted use have failed, indeed since the planning contravention notice was issued, the activity of keeping greyhounds has intensified."

Planning enforcement officer Mathew Whitton said: "As a rule, the keeping of no more than seven dogs for personal enjoyment on residential property is considered incidental to the enjoyment of a dwelling house, but in this instance the land was not part of the owner's residential curtilage and is in the council's opinion being used for commercial activity."

Mike Palmer, editor of Greyhound Monthly, said Carl Appleton had been known nationally as a trainer. He confirmed there were unlikely to be any welfare issues.

"Dogs get muddy. They enjoy rolling about in the mud," he said.