Consultation offers hope to greyhounds

Monday, 03 August 2009 11:09

Advocates for Animals welcomed the opportunity to respond to DEFRA’s consultation on proposals for welfare of racing greyhounds regulations.

Although we would ultimately like to see an end to this exploitation of animals, until that time we welcome measures to improve the welfare of the animals involved.

The consultation does not cover Scotland, however Advocates for Animals will be calling for action to be taken by the Scottish Government.

We have many concerns surrounding the greyhound racing industry, especially relating to the supply of dogs, their welfare during their racing ‘careers’, and the thousands of dogs that are retired every year. For a proportion of these dogs, their fate is simply unknown and there have been numerous cases of such dogs being abandoned or killed, sometimes by extremely cruel methods.

We hope that the new regulations will make a real improvement to the welfare of greyhounds and that the racing industry will take responsibility and accountability for caring for all of the dogs bred, trialled, raced and retired.

View our complete consultation response.