The Beastly Beasts

The Donoughue Report - titled "INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF THE GREYHOUND INDUSTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN" - was issued three days ago.

Fair play to the people that put it together, they have come out and said that the greyhound racing industry needs to clean up it's act.

But, and for me it's a big but, there is an acceptance that greyhounds will die for the sake of the "sport". In Chapter 1 - Background Profile of Greyhound Racing in Britain towards the end of the section titled Registrations it says:

"Given the numbers of greyhounds retiring from racing each year, it seems unlikely that all can be re-homed and therefore some euthanasia may be inevitable, as is accepted in the NGRC Rule 18 as a last resort. But it is important that this be done professionally and humanely."

So great, the NGRC and BGRB will disappear to be replaced by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, welfare of the hounds while racing may well improve while they race, there may be new marketing initiatives and upgrading of stadia.

But at the end of the day, when a greyhounds racing career is over chances are it's life is over. The same number of dogs will be bred, the same number of dogs will race, and the same number of dogs will die.

Does anyone really believe that the dogs that die will do so differently from today? So despite the APGAW report and the Donoughe report, has or will anything really change? I don't think so.