Greyhound Racings Dirty Little Secret Exposed

[BJean]

Yeah that's funny.

Not as funny as the Asia beat up.

[HazyWal]

Yeah that's funny.

Not as funny as the Asia beat up.

I would post photos of greyhounds in Asia but as this is a public forum I won't. It's easy to see though, just google greyhounds in Asia and see how funny it is.

[BJean]

Yeah that's funny.

Not as funny as the Asia beat up.

I would post photos of greyhounds in Asia but as this is a public forum I won't. It's easy to see though, just google greyhounds in Asia and see how funny it is.

Why would you need to post pics of greyhounds -

"every week hundreds of DOGS and CATS are exported worldwide from Australia "

Hundreds?

[HazyWal]

Yeah that's funny.

Not as funny as the Asia beat up.

I would post photos of greyhounds in Asia but as this is a public forum I won't. It's easy to see though, just google greyhounds in Asia and see how funny it is.

Why would you need to post pics of greyhounds -

"every week hundreds of DOGS and CATS are exported worldwide from Australia "

Hundreds?

No need to bold your statement lilli...amazingly I understand. You are in a thread about GREYHOUNDS...if you have nothing of value to say about greyhounds why don't you toddle off and attack someone else.

[Maddy]

Yeah that's funny.

Not as funny as the Asia beat up.

I would post photos of greyhounds in Asia but as this is a public forum I won't. It's easy to see though, just google greyhounds in Asia and see how funny it is.

Why would you need to post pics of greyhounds -

"every week hundreds of DOGS and CATS are exported worldwide from Australia "

Hundreds?

No need to bold your statement lilli...amazingly I understand. You are in a thread about GREYHOUNDS...if you have nothing of value to say about greyhounds why don't you toddle off and attack someone else.

http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/243399-pack-hierarchy/page__view__findpost__p__6016475 *cough*

Anywho.. maybe back on topic and away from defending something that is proven to be a risk.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Hardy's Angel

[BJean]

I would post photos of greyhounds in Asia but as this is a public forum I won't. It's easy to see though, just google greyhounds in Asia and see how funny it is.

Why would you need to post pics of greyhounds -

"every week hundreds of DOGS and CATS are exported worldwide from Australia "

Hundreds?

No need to bold your statement lilli...amazingly I understand. You are in a thread about GREYHOUNDS...if you have nothing of value to say about greyhounds why don't you toddle off and attack someone else.

A thread about greyhounds - that then goes on to claim, hundreds of dogs and cats are exported from Australia each week, with the inference being for the meat trade.

The plight of greyhounds is tragic yes, and the dog meat trade in Asia is tragic also - but hundreds of dogs and cats are not being exported from Australia each week -

nor is it an 'attack' to question this exaggeration.

Edited November 10, 2012 by lilli

[Greyt]

It's certainly no " dirty little secret"

Well.. no. It's been public knowledge for a very long time. Stories like this come up once or twice every year, people get upset and then they get on with their lives.

What does irk me though is people exaggerating figures. If you have to estimate anything, it's always best to be very conservative- that way, if correct figures are actually released, you don't end up looking dishonest and in the process, discrediting those of us who research carefully and don't engage in hyperbole for the sake of a more dramatic story >.>

Well.. no. It's been public knowledge for a very long time.

Actually, the Greyhound Racing industry do not publish the figures of how many dogs they kill each year. If I am wrong, please point me in the direction of their publicly available reports... the ones that would distinguish the information from being private or insider knowledge versus what you describe as "public knowledge". What is a fact is that the industry hide the systemic slaughter of these beautiful dogs. To quote the ABC report, "Also for the first time the industry has revealed that thousands of greyhounds are euthanized every year, mostly because they show no potential on the racetrack."

Stories like this come up once or twice every year, people get upset and then they get on with their lives.

The nature of movements to change is that the public or our leaders take a stand on something they feel strongly enough and change happens. Amongst other things, revealing factual information is part of the process. Some people will move on with their lives and some will do something about what they know, while others will hope that the whole thing blows over. Those of us that can't bear the thought of 8.000 beautiful dogs being slaughtered by the greyhound racing industry each year fall into the former camp.

What does irk me though is people exaggerating figures. If you have to estimate anything, it's always best to be very conservative- that way, if correct figures are actually released, you don't end up looking dishonest and in the process, discrediting those of us who research carefully and don't engage in hyperbole for the sake of a more dramatic story

Slaughtering 3000 healthy dogs annually from a breeding pool of 7500 in NSW alone is not hyperbole. What irks those of us who care about the fate of these animals is that the industry does not publish the figures of dogs that are slaughtered and does not explain how so many dogs "go missing" each year. At this point in time, the facts are that the industry has not been accountable for the systemic slaughter of so many healthy dogs it is responsible for.

But just for the sake of transparency, please provide the carefully researched number of greyhounds PTS for any state over the last five years:

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

[WreckitWhippet]

Tell me more about this " going missing" ?

[Greyt]

Tell me more about this " going missing" ?

It is where ex racing hounds are not officially killed by vets, nor do they turn up in GAP programs, shelters, rescue groups or become pets.

In the UK, one man was convicted of killing 10,000 ex racers by himself.

Here is an article about it

Ten thousand healthy greyhounds were secretly slaughtered and buried in 'killing fields' because they were past their prime, it has been claimed.

No longer of use as racing dogs, the greyhounds were said to have been delivered to building merchant David Smith who shot them in the head with a bolt gun, then buried them in a one-acre plot behind his house.

Campaigners believe similar operations exist elsewhere the country.

Ben Bradshaw, minister for animal welfare, described Mr Smith's business as 'horrendous' and said he would review the evidence of his activities.

And MP Eric Martlew, chairman of a crossparty animal welfare group, said he would urge colleagues to launch an inquiry.

"This is absolutely appalling. It's time the industry cleaned up its act", Mr Martlew said. "For a long time now people thought this kind of thing was going on without any evidence.

"I think the industry is in denial about it. There must have been hundreds, if not thousands of people in the industry that knew what this man was doing.

"I also suspect this is not the only canine killing field like this."

Mr Smith's business was exposed by The Sunday Times. One trainer, who did not want to be named, told the newspaper: "This man kills dogs for 40 licensed trainers and there are at least 10,000 dogs in his field.

"People in the industry have been going to him for years. Many bigwigs knew it was going on."

Greyhounds live until they are between 12 and 14. Greyhound racing attracts 3.5million spectators to the tracks a year with more than £2.5billion bet annually.

The dogs have only a short racing life and are considered too slow by the time they are three-andahalf to five. Some are re-homed through greyhound rescue centres but the RSPCA estimates about 12,000 vanish a year.

'Euthanasia factory'

It is claimed Mr Smith charged £10 to shoot the dogs. He then put their bodies in a wheelbarrow and dumped them in a hole on land near his home in Seaham, County Durham.

One dog track insider told The Sunday Times that greyhound owners and trainers had tried to keep quiet about Mr Smith's operation which was previously run by his father.

"These dogs have made a lot of people a lot of money and they don't deserve to be shot in the head," the insider added.

Since 1997 anyone can own a bolt gun to kill animals without a licence but can be prosecuted if animals are put down inhumanely.

Alistair McLean, chief executive of the National Greyhound Racing Club, which governs the sport, described Mr Smith's business as a "euthanasia factory".

He said the greyhound industry helped fund the retirement of about 3,000 of the 10,000 dogs that stopped racing at its 30 registered tracks each year.

It asks trainers to confirm what happens to dogs after they retire but exact checks are difficult.

"Our policy is clear, which is that we would wish the greyhounds to be suitably re-homed. It is absolutely against our rules to use someone like this."

Mr Smith said he had stopped putting dogs down, but that he had been doing "society a favour" by disposing of them.

"I don't put dogs down anymore, I did my last ones about a week ago," he said.

"These are sick and injured dogs that would otherwise be thrown out on to the streets because their owners can't afford vets' bills.

"Even the police come to me if there is a dog that has been injured and ask me to put it to sleep."

He said he gave any money he made to children's charities

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-396015/The-killing-fieldsof-10-000-greyhounds-old-race.html#ixzz2BrLOsF3G

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[WreckitWhippet]

Hang on, you are talking about the UK. What are you talking about in Australia ?

[Greyt]

Hang on, you are talking about the UK. What are you talking about in Australia ?

Yes, that story is from the UK. A common theme in such stories is that official bodies charged with, amongst other things, the welfare of dogs, do not condone these practices, admit to them, report them or officially investigate them. These the people we trust to do the right thing.

The Emmy Award winning sports show with Bryant Gumbel, on of the US's premier journalists also did an exposé of the US scene.

The 15-minute segment included race footage; a breeding farm in Abilene; greyhounds in training and at auction; and several scenes of greyhounds being euthanized, then dumped into plastic bags before being hurled into dumpsters.

Other highlights included file footage from May 2002 of Robert Rhodes demonstrating for reporters how he held the rifle when he shot thousands of greyhounds in the back of the head on his Alabama farm and how he used his knee to nudge them into the hole. Also shown were the exhumed bodies of some of those dogs.

The scene changes to handlers off-loading greyhounds from a hauler. Goldberg narrates: "On a tip, Real Sports went to a veterinary clinic ten miles from a track [Mobile Greyhound Park] in Alabama." The dogs are walked behind a fence and "less than three minutes later the white greyhound with the brown spot is thrown into a dumpster. What we don't know is how the dogs are put down behind the fence. We do know that over the course of 30 minutes, 16 dogs were disposed of."

In the UK, a lot of people said this practice was not happening. And then they found out that a single human had illegally killed and disposed of 10,000 all by himself, just one man. To think that this practice hasn't or doesn't happen in Australia is unfathomable.

[WreckitWhippet]

Right so the Australian Greyhound Racing industry is going to be tarred with the same UK brush, just like our pedigree dogs have been with Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

Come up with some facts and figures that relate directly to Australia

[Greyt]

Right so the Australian Greyhound Racing industry is going to be tarred with the same UK brush, just like our pedigree dogs have been with Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

Come up with some facts and figures that relate directly to Australia

Er no, the Australian Greyhound Racing Industry is uniquely well equipped in the destruction of dogs. It doesn't need to be compared to Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

So if racing at Wentworth Park has been around since 1932 or so, the Greyhound Racing industry in NSW alone has killed in excess of 200,000 dogs.

The problem with the facts and figures as they relate to the killing of dogs as a by-product of the Australian Greyhound Racing industry is that none of them are good, save for GAP which makes a very small by valuable difference.

[WreckitWhippet]

Right so the Australian Greyhound Racing industry is going to be tarred with the same UK brush, just like our pedigree dogs have been with Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

Come up with some facts and figures that relate directly to Australia

Er no, the Australian Greyhound Racing Industry is uniquely well equipped in the destruction of dogs. It doesn't need to be compared to Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

So if racing at Wentworth Park has been around since 1932 or so, the Greyhound Racing industry in NSW alone has killed in excess of 200,000 dogs.

The problem with the facts and figures as they relate to the killing of dogs as a by-product of the Australian Greyhound Racing industry is that none of them are good, save for GAP which makes a very small by valuable difference.

Where are you making this up from ? Are these facts , figures, estimates or guesses that you've come up with yourself ?

So far I've seen nothing that relates to Australia, with the exception of your first post and even then, you appear to have made it up

[Greyt]

Right so the Australian Greyhound Racing industry is going to be tarred with the same UK brush, just like our pedigree dogs have been with Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

Come up with some facts and figures that relate directly to Australia

Er no, the Australian Greyhound Racing Industry is uniquely well equipped in the destruction of dogs. It doesn't need to be compared to Pedigree Dogs Exposed.

So if racing at Wentworth Park has been around since 1932 or so, the Greyhound Racing industry in NSW alone has killed in excess of 200,000 dogs.

The problem with the facts and figures as they relate to the killing of dogs as a by-product of the Australian Greyhound Racing industry is that none of them are good, save for GAP which makes a very small by valuable difference.

Where are you making this up from ? Are these facts , figures, estimates or guesses that you've come up with yourself ?

So far I've seen nothing that relates to Australia, with the exception of your first post and even then, you appear to have made it up

Well, if you conduct Greyhound racing for 80 years and you kill 3000 dogs per year, you kill a total of 240,000. So I rounded down the number to account for the formative years of the sport etc That said, it doesn't account for the greyhound racing was at its nadir eg in 1975 there were over 6000 litters vs 2814 in 2010/11. So as a by product of racing, killing just 200,000 beautiful healthy dogs, only in NSW, is a very conservative estimate.

[WreckitWhippet]

So you;ve basically made the whole thing up... Love your work

[zeebie]

"every week hundreds of DOGS and CATS are exported worldwide from Australia "

Hundreds?

My apologies Lilli for the typo which I have corrected in the original post should have read ' every MONTH'

if you looked at the collective data from Australain export sectors you would see just how many pedigree dogs and cats are purchased and sent to these countries, these are the registered ones there are also many who just get sold from BYB to overseas 'investors' as I said some are going to reputable breeders and kennels etc. Others however are just a commodity and are purchased, received and bred till death just for fur/meat/illegal fighting and in the greyhound instance already broken down dogs are filled with steroids and raced or go to fattening farms and sold on to recover initial outlay. Photo's of cute children with lovable dogs mean nothing unless you were there to see the pic taken anything can be photoshopped. I am not pointing the finger at any one culture or country just asian countries in general is where the high incidence of this is happening.

Thank you Stan's mum for seeing my point and supporting what I was endeavouring to convey that every dog irrespective of its breed deserves a chance to have a life

[BJean]

"every week hundreds of DOGS and CATS are exported worldwide from Australia "

Hundreds?

My apologies Lilli for the typo which I have corrected in the original post should have read ' every MONTH'

if you looked at the collective data from Australain export sectors you would see just how many pedigree dogs and cats are purchased and sent to these countries, these are the registered ones there are also many who just get sold from BYB to overseas 'investors' as I said some are going to reputable breeders and kennels etc. Others however are just a commodity and are purchased, received and bred till death just for fur/meat/illegal fighting and in the greyhound instance already broken down dogs are filled with steroids and raced or go to fattening farms and sold on to recover initial outlay. Photo's of cute children with lovable dogs mean nothing unless you were there to see the pic taken anything can be photoshopped. I am not pointing the finger at any one culture or country just asian countries in general is where the high incidence of this is happening.

Thank you Stan's mum for seeing my point and supporting what I was endeavouring to convey that every dog irrespective of its breed deserves a chance to have a life

HUNDREDS of pedigree dogs and cats exported from Australia every MONTH

oh my goodnesses, I guess that is why there are less pedigree dogs and cats, they are all going overseas!!!

[BJean]

So you;ve basically made the whole thing up... Love your work

Stop attacking the good intentions PL!

Edited November 11, 2012 by lilli

[Curlybert]

I'm hoping that one of these days, lilli, you'll actually participate in a thread that is outside your own specific area of interest and say something that is neither cynical nor bitchy. :)