Petitions and Protests and Bans - Oh my

Political self-preservation continues to be the enemy of greyhound racing.

Tasmania became the latest to decide to ban greyhound racing this week. A U-Turn on what had been said before, with the ban seeming to come a little out of the blue according to those close to the sport in Australia. 

Even by political standards, it was a remarkably quick flip flop. Three weeks after making a comment that he would support the greyhound racing industry, Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff turned his back on the sport with a promise to "wind up" greyhound racing by 2029. 

It would seem there is more chance of flying monkeys than a politician keeping their word these days but he certainly did wind up greyhound racing with his announcement!

Graham has done a pair of excellent pieces on Tasmania this week, one of which included this quote from Brett Costelloe. “Jeremy Rockliff is trying to build a government from outside his own party as well, so you can probably join the dots as to why this is being announced at this time.” 

Now my memory isn’t as good as it was but wasn’t there another similar situation elsewhere in the greyhound racing world where the sport was thrown to the wolves because of a need of political support from outside the ruling party? 

Ah yes, Wales.

Speaking of Wales, we have seen letters sent by Greyhound Rescue Wales and Jane Dodds to Huw Irranca-Davies dated January 27 and January 30 respectively, as part of a freedom of information request made. 

There is a ‘FOI S.40(2) - Personal Information’ black mark across who Greyhound Rescue Wales cc’d into their letter, though the arrival of another on the desk of Irranca-Davies just three days later expressing similar concerns suggests that we can make an educated guess.

The letter from Greyhound Rescue Wales was titled 'Evidence of unacceptable injury risks documented during first year of regulated commercial greyhound racing in Wales.' 

Their 'evidence' as it turns out comprised their own "analysis of information from GBGB results database and video evidence from live streaming of races." 

They counted 322 greyhounds attached to Valley trainers with 33.5% of them recording at least one non-career-ending injury. 8% suffered probably career-ending injuries. 

Unfortunately, they do not specify how they came by those conclusions, but it would appear that anything that missed a week or two will have gone down as a non-career-ending injury. As for the probable career-ending injuries, well...it's hard to know how probable their probable actually is given that their evidence is purely what they wanted to see...probably.

The Dodds letter contained little of substance, though the following sentence was interesting. "Ensuring the welfare of racing greyhounds is of the utmost importance , and transparency is crucial to maintaining public trust in the regulatory framework." Written by a politician without a hint of irony just six weeks prior to our expose on her dubious stories about her own retired greyhound. You couldn't make it up...

We can only sit and wait to see what the 'Implementation Group' led by Dr Emily Blackwell (a Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist) will decide as the path to ending greyhound racing in Wales. Hopefully, as an animal behaviourist, she will see how happy greyhounds are in training and how thoroughly they enjoy their lives.

The Welsh Government did confirm that representatives of the Valley track were present at the first meeting of the group on July 11 but naturally have declined to release any information further to that. 

Thanks again to Stefan Wells who has spent a lot of personal time filling out requests for freedom of information requests etc in this case. His heart is greyhound racing through and through.

Petitions and protests planned

There was a new petition started recently to ban greyhound racing. The other God alone knows how many have failed but antis are nothing if not relentless in their pursuit of banning anything they don’t like.

This particular petition has been started by Michelle Masterton-Smith. Formerly the Head of Brand and Strategy at Blood Cancer UK, she clearly held a responsible and hugely worthwhile position there. 

However, Masterson-Smith has now traded that for arguably a cancerous blight on us all - certainly where horse and greyhound racing are concerned - called Animal Aid. Her petition reads:

Greyhound racing kills and injures dogs. From 2017–2023, 1,230 dogs died trackside, many more were destroyed, and there were over 31,000 injuries. We believe it’s time to follow Wales and ban this cruel sport.

The industry breeds more dogs than are needed for racing - approximately 15,000-20,000 dogs are bred in Ireland each year, and some are also bred in Britain. We are concerned that dogs live in poor kennel conditions, and overbreeding creates a surplus, overwhelming rescue centres. A 2019 RTÉ documentary estimated up to 6,000 greyhounds are killed annually for not being fast enough. There are concerns about greyhounds being exported to countries with poor welfare laws. We believe no animal should suffer for sport or entertainment.

If we sat and made a list of all the things that pet owners do that could kill or injure their dogs we'd be here all day! 

So, we are faced with the usual ambiguity. ‘Many more were destroyed’ ahhh our friend many with zero definition, pick a number, any number. They'll believe it anyway. 

'The industry breeds more dogs than are needed for racing.' Must be imagining all of the four dog races then, 'overbreeding creates a surplus' again if anyone knows where that surplus is, there are vacant traps to be filled almost everywhere. 

'Approximately 15,000-20,000 dogs are bred in Ireland each year.' Has anyone informed the Irish about that? There were 1,689 litters born in Ireland last year.  The average number of pups per litter has been steady at 6.4 for as long as I can remember which would make it approximately 10,810 pups born in Ireland last year. 

The difference between my approximation and that of Masterson-Smith is that I'm using actual ratified figures rather than making them up on the spot for shock tactics. A quick chat with the always anxious for answers Holly Cairns would have cleared that up. She asks the question about number of pups born year on year in the greyhound debate that the Irish parliament has. 

The answer for 2023 was 10,460 from 1,691 litters by the way. 

To get 15,000 pups, Ireland would need to breed about 2,344 litters, a number that has not been seen since 2018. To get 20,000, there would need to be 3,125 litters born. Floyd helped me go back as far as 2012 and there was not a single year where 3,000 was topped, let alone an extra 125 litters to get remotely close to Masterson-Smith's 'approximation'. 

The word approximately is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting there. The difference between 10.5-11K the last two years and 15,000 is vast and from 20,000 even more so, but as we have said before, if there is one thing the antis are good at, it's serious exaggeration.. 

'A 2019 RTÉ documentary estimated up to 6,000 greyhounds are killed annually for not being fast enough.' The greyhound world in the opinion of the antis has not moved on a day in six years despite the clear improvements that have been made on both sides of the Irish Sea. Also, an estimation of up to. So anything from 0-6,000 then, quite the range to be quoting. 

It is an interesting take, aside from the lies which are covered up with estimates, approximations and inflammatory adjective phrases, of course. As always, the biggest problem is that those do-gooders that it's aimed at will swallow it hook, line and sinker and worse still, will preach it to anyone that will listen as if it is gospel. Unfortunately, there's a lack of critical thinking that goes on in the brains of antis.

Animal Aid are planning to protest at every track in England next week, starting at Nottingham on Monday through to Pelaw on Sunday. That will be the most interesting day as they are not protesting at Owlerton on Sunday but rather in Sheffield City Centre and. more bizarrely, they are protesting in Bournemouth City Centre as well that day. 

As much as we disagree with their point of view, anyone attending a track next week, please do not stoop to their level. They have no interest in listening to what they are told and will be deliberately looking to provoke. 

An audience with cell phones recording every second can only reflect badly on us if we let them get under our skin. It takes courage to not engage negatively with those who are looking to harm what we love. 

The advertising for it all over TikTok suggests that Animal Aid are looking for the naive, younger age groups who don't know any better. This is targeted warfare on the sport that we love. They know their audience and how to pull the strings on their little marionettes. How we go about cutting those strings is a work in progress but one thing is for certain...

We sure as hell aren't in Kansas anymore.