The protest was held to highlight the plight of grey-hounds bred for racing and how many are simply "binned" every year once their "useful" life is over. The UK greyhound racing industry is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of greyhounds each year - the dogs are killed when they lose their economic worth. Yearly 40,000 greyhounds are bred in the British Isles to supply the demands of the UK greyhound racing industry. The vast majority of these dogs will be disposed of by the industry before they are 3 years old with only a few percent of these "unwanted" greyhounds finding good homes. Most are either put to death or face an even worse fate. The lucky dogs are those destroyed by a vet! Many are just abandoned or killed by a variety of horrific methods, eg clubbing, drowning or injection with poisonous substances.
The only real solution to this horrific state of affairs is for greyhound racing to be banned. Six states in the USA have banned greyhound racing in recent years so there is no reason why a ban shouldn't be imposed in the UK.
Greyhound racing began in the UK on 24 July 1926, here at Belle Vue. The nearest Sunday to this date every year is "Greyhound Remembrance Day" and, as we went to press, MAP were holding a vigil outside the Belle Vue greyhound racing stadium in memory of the hundreds of thousands of dogs that have been abused and killed by the greyhound racing industry since that day.
Manchester Animal Protection (0845 456 2492, [email protected])
Greyhound Action (01562 745778, [email protected])
Captive Animals' Protection Society (0845 330 7955)
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