2) nobody is going to be able to take a retired cow home to their living room.
3) Although I eat meat, I am extremely careful where it comes from, (particularly pork) and the same goes for milk and eggs. I don't buy products that come from animals that are kept in small boxes for 23 hours a day, and that is what many greyhounds endure.
4) racing greyhounds don't seem to get kept in conditions that would be considered acceptable for pet animals, and ISTR are explicitly exempted from the upcoming Animal Welfare bill.
(I thought this was overstatement to start with. Then I adopted a dog that had not come from a 'bad' kennels, but none the less was bald from lying on concrete, had the tip of a hypodermic embedded in the bone of her leg. At first I thought I was just unlucky, but as I supported my local greyhound rescue, and talked to the people who run other rescues, I started to realise that my dog had got off lightly.)
5) your point about the killing being legal is excellent, and goes right to the heart of the problem. The guy is performing a service that is required because of the way that the industry is structured. In fact, the dogs shot so horribly are in many ways the lucky ones. It is not unknown for dogs to be 'killed' so badly they don't die and turn up later wandering in horrible pain - and every year greyhounds turn up with their ears hacked off, because without ears nobody can trace the dog to his owner.
I feel that there is something horribly wasteful about an industry that produces thousands of very beautiful, intelligent animals every year, fails to give them the basic training they would need to find retirement homes, in fact, trains them deliberately so that they are relatively difficult to home (no house training, no recall skills, honed chase instincts) then dumps them anywhere that will take them - rescues, export to Spain (where truly horrible things happen) man with bolt gun, the streets - wherever.
I actually don't have a problem with dog racing as such - for example, terrier racing seems to be a lot of fun. But greyhound racing seems to be just so riddled with problems that it is at the very least in desperate need of reform.
I originally thought that reform was what was needed, but I've just heard too many nasty stories now: I now believe they should close the industry down for at least 5-10 years to force it to get its house in order.
I think it is worse than many other animal-related industries, and more to the point, is completely unnecessary.
I appreciate that you probably feel that the greyhound industry is under attack unjustly because you have seen too many badly thought out animal rights protests, but personally, I think this one is different.
I think you're right about the badly thought out protests, and I'm quite willing to believe this one is different. The reasons you give are all excellent, although rather different from the original story I saw (which was that a guy had been killing dogs with a gun -- no suggestion that he had been doing so other than quickly and cleanly). The welfare issues you mention induce much more outrage in me than the shooting. I don't have much of a problem with dogs being shot quickly and cleanly when no longer required (I agree with you it seems a shame to breed them just for entertainment and then to be killed, but as I said I don't feel in a position to take the moral high ground when so many pigs (etc) are bred purely in order to be killed on my behalf). Indeed, I think it's much more respectable to take responsibility and have your unwanted animal killed cleanly than to dump it on an animal charity or whatever. However, dogs being kept in poor conditions & not killed cleanly is obviously a massive animal welfare issue. I am stunned if the greyhound racing industry is immune from animal welfare legislation. Are you sure it isn't just immune from "pet" welfare legislation but subject to its own legislation? If it is exempt from all legislation, that is truly outrageous. - Neuromancer
What the RSPCA says about the situation is this: "Greyhound racing in the UK falls into two categories, those tracks registered by the National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) and the non-registered independent sector. There are 31 tracks and more than 9,000 greyhounds registered by the NGRC2 in Britain and there are 21 unregistered dog tracks outside of their control.3 The independent sector is unregulated and standards are entirely dependent on the track manager."
DEFRA says: "the legislation in the UK governing farmed animal welfare is very comprehensive. However, protection of non-farmed animals has not kept up with these developments."
The regulation of the 'registered' tracks is carried out by the NGRC, which is not really an independent body. Although in theory the 'regulated' tracks should be better, there are far too many eye-witness reports that suggest this is not the case, and even on those tracks dogs are not getting appropriate treatment, doping is widespread, dogs are running on tracks that are designed to cause injury, not exercised, not given basic healthcare, etc.
The new Animal Welfare Bill 2006 at the moment looks like it will require the industry to be self-regulating. Given that the regulators seem to have wholly overlooked this guy and his moderately large dog disposal operation and are now acting all shocked and surprised, this is not promising.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 08:20 pm (UTC)2) nobody is going to be able to take a retired cow home to their living room.
3) Although I eat meat, I am extremely careful where it comes from, (particularly pork) and the same goes for milk and eggs. I don't buy products that come from animals that are kept in small boxes for 23 hours a day, and that is what many greyhounds endure.
4) racing greyhounds don't seem to get kept in conditions that would be considered acceptable for pet animals, and ISTR are explicitly exempted from the upcoming Animal Welfare bill.
(I thought this was overstatement to start with. Then I adopted a dog that had not come from a 'bad' kennels, but none the less was bald from lying on concrete, had the tip of a hypodermic embedded in the bone of her leg. At first I thought I was just unlucky, but as I supported my local greyhound rescue, and talked to the people who run other rescues, I started to realise that my dog had got off lightly.)
5) your point about the killing being legal is excellent, and goes right to the heart of the problem. The guy is performing a service that is required because of the way that the industry is structured. In fact, the dogs shot so horribly are in many ways the lucky ones. It is not unknown for dogs to be 'killed' so badly they don't die and turn up later wandering in horrible pain - and every year greyhounds turn up with their ears hacked off, because without ears nobody can trace the dog to his owner.
I feel that there is something horribly wasteful about an industry that produces thousands of very beautiful, intelligent animals every year, fails to give them the basic training they would need to find retirement homes, in fact, trains them deliberately so that they are relatively difficult to home (no house training, no recall skills, honed chase instincts) then dumps them anywhere that will take them - rescues, export to Spain (where truly horrible things happen) man with bolt gun, the streets - wherever.
I actually don't have a problem with dog racing as such - for example, terrier racing seems to be a lot of fun. But greyhound racing seems to be just so riddled with problems that it is at the very least in desperate need of reform.
I originally thought that reform was what was needed, but I've just heard too many nasty stories now: I now believe they should close the industry down for at least 5-10 years to force it to get its house in order.
I think it is worse than many other animal-related industries, and more to the point, is completely unnecessary.
I appreciate that you probably feel that the greyhound industry is under attack unjustly because you have seen too many badly thought out animal rights protests, but personally, I think this one is different.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 08:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-18 09:36 am (UTC)"Greyhound racing in the UK falls into two categories, those tracks registered by the National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) and the non-registered independent sector. There are 31 tracks
and more than 9,000 greyhounds registered by the NGRC2 in Britain and there are 21 unregistered dog tracks outside of their control.3 The independent sector is unregulated and standards are entirely dependent on the track manager."
DEFRA says: "the legislation in the UK governing farmed animal welfare is very comprehensive. However, protection of non-farmed animals has not kept up with these developments."
The regulation of the 'registered' tracks is carried out by the NGRC, which is not really an independent body. Although in theory the 'regulated' tracks should be better, there are far too many eye-witness reports that suggest this is not the case, and even on those tracks dogs are not getting appropriate treatment, doping is widespread, dogs are running on tracks that are designed to cause injury, not exercised, not given basic healthcare, etc.
The new Animal Welfare Bill 2006 at the moment looks like it will require the industry to be self-regulating. Given that the regulators seem to have wholly overlooked this guy and his moderately large dog disposal operation and are now acting all shocked and surprised, this is not promising.