Press Release from South West Animal Protection: Monday 11th February 2008

South West animal Protection (SWAP) have recently been alerted to twelve greyhounds being kept in unsuitable conditions in North Swindon. The SWAP team received the news from someone who had been contacted by the owner of the greyhounds who was asking for help to re-home his dogs as neighbours had allegedly been complaining about the dogs barking and had threatened to report him.

SWAP team contacted the owner immediately who explained that he had twelve greyhounds, three adult dogs and nine three-year old siblings from the same litter and the owner openly admitted that he had badly neglected them. After liaising with other rescue groups, SWAP team helped to get eleven of the twelve dogs into safe sanctuary within a few days. The last remaining greyhound now
called 'Paddy' took a little longer to re-home as he was the oldest of the twelve. (please see photo above). When 'Paddy' was finally rescued on Friday 8th February the SWAP team was informed that his teeth were in a very bad state of neglect and that he was suffering from a bad gum infection. He was also lame and had suspected arthritis.

The owner who previously raced some of his greyhounds and who we cannot name for legal reasons, was keeping his greyhounds in kennels in his garden at his Swindon home and when rescuers went in to collect the dogs, the kennels were found to be in a filthy condition and the greyhounds were allegedly living in slurry.

The owner admitted to the SWAP team that he felt ashamed that he had allowed himself to neglect his dogs in this way and blamed this on personal problems. SWAP team however believe that there are no excuses for keeping animals in squalid conditions and for making these dogs suffer.

Tens of thousands of greyhounds are bred every year in the British Isles to supply the racing industry, many of these are killed at the end of their racing careers once they are no longer wanted. The APGAW (Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare) report

click here to read the report in pdf format

which reveals that according to the National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) approximately 11,000 registered greyhounds leave racing each year. The APGAW report also states that a minimum of
4,728 dogs are unaccounted for each year and the parliamentary group says that it can assume that the majority of these dogs are destroyed.

Additionally many young British bred greyhounds who don't make it to the tracks because they are found unsuitable for racing are also destroyed.

SWAP is totally opposed to greyhound racing due not only to the sheer numbers of dogs killed every year but also due to the terrible if not fatal injuries that the dogs sustain during racing and the abuse that many greyhounds have to endure. SWAP team would like to see greyhound racing abolished as this is the only way to end the suffering and we urge the general public to boycott this industry by not supporting or attending greyhound racing.

Please also view this anti- greyhound racing video http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1rAB-PY7XZQ (volume up please)

GA comment : Just another sorry case of cruelty and neglect to add to the long list we already have ... the facts are clear ... greyhound racing is a cruel and heartless industry and reform is not enough ... it must be banned immediately.

"I read with total disbelief a letter from a visitor to Swindon, in it he tells of seeing a dog run poor and that he thought the dog was ungenuine, later in the night he heard the dog had been P.T.S (put to sleep)........."

"I also read this article this morning, and yet again I found myself reading it in disbelief. How many times does this industry want to shoot itself in the foot in this way. It beggars beleif that this dog was PTS without the track, owner, or trainer searching out an alternative outcome than the fate suffered by this dog. I think there is fast becoming a thin line between being a supporter of greyhound racing,and an anti. It will not be long before the antis turn on the greyhound racing industry, and with this sort of policy at our tracks, who can seriously blame them."

"Rule 18 (in the National Greyhound Racing Club's rulebook) states that as a last resort a healthy dog "can" be put down. In this case it seems to be the first resort maybe the rule has been broken, the dog never been given a chance to find a home. I suppose that Swindon has signed the Greyhound Charter, if they have then they have broken it and should be held accountable, as the trainer should."

"Swindon is a bloody disgrace and should be investigated by the RSPCA as an accomplice to this hiddious act of cruelty, and the owner banned from owning any animal for life, the vet's as guilty as hell and should be struck off, rotten to the core the lot of you."

"The owners a disgrace also and he should be put down as well."

"Good luck in the future with our sport I am throwing the towel in in this country its a shambles and I dont want to subject my dogs to it any more."

".............these trainers should....be held accountable and named and shamed in the press, thus allowing any owners unaware of these trainers characters the chance NOT to place a dog with them, these scumbags make me sick, sick to the point that i feel i should'nt be in this game."