I am emailing in response to your article regarding future plans for  Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium. As an owner of an ex -racing greyhound I am totally against any plans which would result in further abuse of this most gentle breed.

This "sport" is responsible for the death of tens of thousands of dogs every year, both through horrific injuries sustained during racing around too tight bends at high speeds & also through their destruction when they are no longer deemed profitable to keep due to injury or just getting slower! A greyhound's racing career starts at around 18 months of age and is finished typically by the age of 3 years. A greyhound's natural lifespan is around 14 years. There will never be enough homes for all the thousands of surplus dogs and so the majority are killed; if they are lucky by a humane method, often not, as this costs the owner, to spend money on their unprofitable dog!

Common methods of killing a dog including shooting them through the head, drowning or dumping the poor, terrified animal on a motorway to be hit by a car, among other barbaric methods.

Often dogs will have their ears cut off first, so that they cannot be traced back to their owner by the identification tattoos in their ears. Some dogs are shipped abroad to be forced to run and live in horrific conditions, often with already sustained injuries.

That is if the dog makes it into racing. Thousands of puppies are over-bred every year and obviously not all of these will make it into racing. These surplus puppies are culled before they even make it to adulthood!

Only one  in  four puppies that are born will reach their fourth birthday.  Those that do have a short career in racing are often kept in appalling conditions, being muzzled and kennelled for 23 hours a day and the so-called self-regulation of the industry does little to prevent this.

 Greyhounds are also commonly used for dissection as training at veterinary colleges or bleed to death as donors for treatment of other pet dogs.

All greyhounds, even the lucky ones that do find a retirement home, suffer. They often have injuries and arthritis which cause them pain due to the stress put on their limbs from racing around poorly designed and maintained tracks.

For further information please take a look at the following websites.

http://www.greytexploitations.com/

http://greyhoundaction.org.uk/

Thank You for taking the time to read this information.

Mrs Amanda Lawrence

Via email

 

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