Greyhound Board responds to Welsh Government’s greyhound racing ban

Jeremy Cooper – Chairman, Greyhound Board of Great Britain

I read with utter dismay the opinion piece by Dr Samantha Gaines of the RSPCA on 8th March, and feel, as Chairman of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain and former CEO of the RSPCA, it is my duty to provide a factual response to her grossly exaggerated claims.

In her piece, Dr Gaines seeks to rewrite the history of the RSPCA’s engagement with greyhound racing with her claim that the RSPCA “devoted huge resources” towards improving welfare of racing greyhounds.

In reality, following their involvement in several academic research studies and advisory documents through the Greyhound Forum, the RSPCA stopped engaging with the industry, and publicly called for greyhound racing to be banned in 2022.

It has been publicly confirmed that, despite Dr Gaines’ disingenuous assertion that “calls to phase out greyhound racing were built on evidence”, the Welsh Government’s proposal to ban the sport was not a welfare and evidence driven decision.

Instead, it is the result of a backroom deal between the Welsh Government and Jane Dodds MS, the sole Liberal Democrat and a longstanding anti-greyhound racing campaigner, to secure her support to pass the Welsh Budget.

Furthermore, any evidence which the RSPCA purports to have to support their campaign against the sport appears to come from an internal report which, despite often referencing it and likely spending thousands of pounds of donor money to create it, they have never actually published.

This draws into question whether it actually contains any concrete evidence against greyhound racing.

Claims

Contradicting the RSPCA’s claims of strong “evidence” to support their campaign against the sport, GBGB Injury and Retirement Data in fact shows that the fatality rate has halved since 2018, standing now at just 0.03%.

This is in stark contrast with Dr Gaines’ assertion that the “pace of change” in the greyhound industry has not been fast enough.

Likewise, despite Dr Gaines’ representation that the injury rate is “still very high”, it stands at just 1.16%, with the rate of serious long bone injuries far reduced from 2018.

On the other hand, horse racing, which Dr Gaines asserts has made considerable improvements thanks to the RSPCA’s involvement, has an overall fatality rate of 0.25%, which increases to 0.56% for jump racing.

It is astonishing that Dr Gaines and the RSPCA can suggest that welfare in horse racing is considerably better when, depending on the discipline, it is between eight and 19 times more likely to result in the death of the animal involved than greyhound racing.

Progress

As our data demonstrates, it is entirely counterfactual for Dr Gaines to suggest that considerable, fast-paced and ongoing progress to protect greyhound welfare has not been made by the industry.

The improvements shown by our data are the direct result of our long-term Welfare Strategy, A Good Life For Every Greyhound, through which GBGB has invested considerable sums in improving greyhound welfare at all stages of life.

During their racing careers, greyhounds benefit from close monitoring both at their kennels and during racing.

This includes regular inspections by veterinary and stipendiary stewards, monitoring while at the racecourse by the onsite veterinary surgeon, independent inspections as part of GBGB’s UKAS accreditation and expert oversight of the preparation of the racing surface to minimise injury risk.

Registered greyhounds are therefore monitored far more closely than any domestic pet.

The RSPCA were originally stakeholders in the production of our Welfare Strategy, and GBGB took almost all their suggestions on board when creating the Strategy.

Agenda

However, as the RSPCA’s priorities became increasingly aligned with that of the extreme animal rights movement they turned against their own suggestions to suit their new agenda.

Any abandoned efforts from the RSPCA towards improving welfare simply pale in comparison to the extensive, and ongoing, work undertaken by GBGB, who are never complacent in improving standards of welfare.

As greyhounds reach the end of their racing careers, GBGB also provides financial support to help cover the costs of retirement.

So far, we have worked with greyhound owners to provide over £5 million in funding to support the costs associated with a greyhound’s transition to retirement and provided over £1.1 million to support the cost of veterinary care in the unfortunate instance that a greyhound sustains a career-ending injury.

As the RSPCA knows too well, there is a national homing crisis ongoing for all animals, which will of course affect their ability to find new homes for racing greyhounds, furthering our concerns for welfare should a ban come into force.

As Dr Gaines notes, the funding for all these vital welfare initiatives comes from a voluntary levy on bookmakers, not a statutory levy, which of course makes the sport’s welfare funding more precarious than the funding for our counterparts in horse racing.

However, GBGB has been conducting a dedicated, public campaign for a statutory levy for almost six months now – if, as Dr Gaines says, the RSPCA’s view is in part based on the funding model for greyhound welfare, and their support for horse racing is predicated on its statutory levy, why have they not backed this campaign?

Implications

The wonderful racing greyhounds who compete on licensed tracks will not, in fact, be celebrating any ban. Anyone who has seen a greyhound run knows that their desire to chase is built into their DNA so a ban will inevitably push the sport underground leading to unregulated environments which present a considerable danger to greyhounds.

It is therefore my view that robust regulation, as exists across GBGB licensed racecourses, is the only viable option for safeguarding welfare – something echoed by many others since the ban was proposed, especially since phased bans are notoriously difficult to implement and police.

If Dr Gaines in fact believes there “hasn’t even been that much public debate” since the proposal for a ban, she has closed her eyes and ears – as she has done with regards to the evidence – to the considerable criticism of the Welsh Government’s decision which has been covered by almost every major news publication and broadcast.

The RSPCA’s position on greyhound racing, and their clear disregard for facts and evidence, should be a sharp wake-up call for those involved in any animal activity, from horseracing to sheep herding, mounted police to dog agility – no matter how much you invest in animal welfare, for the animal rights lobby it will never be enough.