End Greyhound racing

In July 2007 The Daily Mail and the Scottish Daily Mail printed news items exposing yet more cruel atrocities to Greyhounds. The articles can be viewed on line by visiting www.greyhoundmuses.com/scotlandmail.htm and www.greyhoundmuses.com/sickening.htm Whilst terribly horrific accounts in their own right, these are just two instances that have been exposed. There are thousands more similar cases that will never come to the public awareness.

Though the racing industry will vehemently deny the truth and claim that the cases we hear of are rare, simple arithmetic is all that is required to expose the truth. Up to 30000 Greyhounds are bred each year, mainly in Ireland, and less than fifty per cent make it to the race tracks. What happens to the rest? When the dogs reach 4 or 5 years old they are too old to race, what happens to them? The numbers involved make it quite clear that they don't go to loving homes as the industry would have us believe. Many are injured racing and left without treatment or treated by unskilled persons as money is the only consideration here.

It would be possible to go on and on about the abuse of the racing Greyhound but instead I refer you to my website www.greyhoundmuses.com where much more information can be obtained. Because of this terrible abuse we the undersigned call upon you to impose a total ban on Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. More legislation and tighter controls are not the answer. There is already much legislation but persons who can commit the kind of atrocities described in the accounts mentioned above, are not going to take any notice of the law. Harsher penalties are not the answer either because, as with all criminals, they don't think they will be caught, and they are probably right. When a case is brought into public awareness it makes national newspaper headlines but the few that are exposed are even less that the very tip of the iceberg that is the problem of Greyhound racing.

Please help us to end competitive Greyhound racing in United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.