Why the RSPCA called for a ban on greyhound racing – and what we tried first

Dr Samantha Gaines – Head of Companion Animals at the RSPCA

Last month was a big one for dog welfare in Wales – with the Welsh Government announcing its intention to end greyhound racing “as soon as possible”.

And while this was a real cause for celebration at the RSPCA, and our partners in the Cut The Chase coalition, this wasn’t always our ultimate objective – or that of other charities working so hard to improve greyhound welfare.

Because achieving good animal welfare isn’t all about bans – there are lots of different ways of accomplishing change, securing improvements and ensuring animals experience a good quality of life.

Of course, there’s activities that just aren’t compatible with good animal welfare and cause significant suffering. In recent years and decades, we’ve thankfully seen legislation, at a UK or devolved level, to stop certain things happening – such as hunting, the live exports of animals or the use of devices – like certain traps, and electronic training collars.

Such laws have successfully outlawed activities that are fundamentally contradictory with good animal welfare.

But in reality, this is just a small fragment of the advocacy work we do, and the steps we want to see taken to change animals’ lives for the better.

So while legislative bans often generate the headlines, many animal welfare improvements are achieved by the RSPCA behind the scenes, over long periods of time, using robust evidence  and working closely with governments, industries, corporate bodies and the wider public.

We want to improve standards so that animals have the opportunity to experience a good quality of life; and highlight why good animal welfare standards benefit us all.

And this was true with greyhound racing.

Welfare

For many years, the RSPCA was committed to engaging closely with the greyhound racing sector in the hope of securing improvements to dog welfare, and ensuring, at the very least, a life worth living for every single greyhound involved in the industry.

That meant making every effort to understand the sport, and working within those parameters, engaging directly with stakeholders inside and outside of the industry, to try and eliminate bad welfare practices – as well as introducing new measures which would enhance and enable good welfare to be experienced.

The RSPCA and our partners devoted huge resources to this – all in the interests of greyhound welfare; and always seeking to work constructively – including as part of groups like Greyhound Forum UK.

We sat on working groups – including liaising closely with the Greyhound Board of Great Britain – to help develop welfare compatible technical specifications for greyhound trainer kennels.

We also helped with the development of policies and provided content for their code of practice to help ensure that greyhound welfare was safeguarded during racing and away from the racetrack.

The RSPCA funded research investigating the effects of refinements in the sport, including initiatives aimed at reducing the number of greyhounds and the potential subsequent effects on the general dog re-homing population.

Funding

This work also explored ways of improving transport and tackling dental disease. We also funded reports, too – including an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare investigation; which looked at how steps such as better regulation, financing and welfare payments and the reduction in the number of dogs used by the industry could improve welfare.

We also joined the GBGB in meetings with UK Ministers making the case for a statutory levy which would secure a consistent funding stream for welfare – but this has never been introduced.

And in Wales, as part of the Animal Welfare Network for Wales, we co-authored a voluntary code of practice for racing greyhounds – covering issues like the training of greyhounds, management at the track, vet attendance at meetings, dog breeding, transportation, biosecurity and sale.

A pick-up-and-go one stop shop to better welfare in the sport – but to the best of our knowledge this was never used at the track. A missed opportunity, gathering dust on the shelf.

These steps were all big undertakings; involving many years of detailed work aimed at improving welfare standards in the sport.

Sadly, over time, it became clear that – despite all these endeavours – progress had not been made quickly enough, or on a big enough scale, to protect the welfare of these dogs.

Radical change

Despite years of joint working, significant welfare issues for greyhounds had not been resolved and we did not believe they could be resolved without radical change within the industry. Issues exist at every stage of the greyhounds’ life – including during their racing career, but also once it has finished.

Even if welfare was perfect off the track, greyhounds running at speed around oval tracks is dangerous. It causes significant injury to many dogs, and in some cases death. Indeed, in 2023, there were 109 track fatalities – ten more than the previous year; and some 4,238 injuries.

Despite all of our work, the proportion of injuries against total runs was still very high at 1.16% – the exact same percentage as back in 2018. It felt impossible to keep justifying this. And the pace of change from the sport and the lack of a consistent and adequate source of income for welfare improvements, gave us little confidence that better times were ahead.

All this injury and death isn’t excusable – but the argument becomes even more acute when you consider that greyhound racing has been in massive decline; both domestically and internationally.

According to some reports, the sport was once second only to football in terms of popularity – but that is a distant memory, with attendances and interest having dwindled.  Just a handful of countries worldwide still host competitive racing – New Zealand recently backed a ban; and the last track in Mexico shut up shop not long ago.

In the UK, Crayford Dog Track closed its doors in January; while once iconic tracks at places like Wimbledon and Henlow have closed in recent years. Polling for the RSPCA has found more than three quarters of people neither follow nor participate in the sport at all.

Standards

Calling for an end to greyhound racing was clearly not a knee-jerk reaction. It followed decades of work with industry; in the hope of improving standards. But continual outcomes showed that many dogs were still getting badly injured, or dying, as a result of racing, and it was increasingly clear something major had to change.

What followed was an intense period of reflection and consideration as to whether achieving at least a life worth living is possible for each and every greyhound racing in the UK.

Based on the raft of evidence we now had available, and our challenging experiences in trying to secure meaningful change, our position started to shift.

After a detailed review of policy – it became clear that the right thing to do and the only way to safeguard the welfare of racing greyhounds was to call for greyhound racing to be phased out altogether.

The public’s reaction was huge – and the many thousands that have made their voices heard in recent years, including through a petition spearheaded by our coalition colleagues at Hope rescue have really spurred the campaign onto new heights.

Since the Welsh Government announcement was made, there’s been some “whataboutery” about the ban – particularly comparisons being made with horse racing. And yes, injuries and fatalities in horseracing are a huge cause for concern.

But engagement with the horse racing industry has achieved a great deal – such as changes to the design of jumps, field size and racing procedures to improve safety and to reduce horse deaths. The financial model is also very different – horse racing has a statutory levy, which returns 10 percent of the profits from racing made by betting companies back to the sport; helping provide a reliable income stream to support welfare improvements.

We are under no illusion that there are still some areas of horse racing where more progress needs to be made in improving the welfare of horses involved – including the use of the whip to drive horses forward.

Ban

But engagement has led to improvements which have the potential to help make a real difference to the quality of lives of the thousands of horses involved in racing. Sadly, despite years of effort, that increasingly wasn’t the case with greyhound racing.

The fact the Welsh Government has now announced their intention to end racing highlights the compelling evidence the animal welfare sector had at their disposal.

When announcing the ban on the floor of the Senedd, the Deputy Minister referred to “growing evidence internationally” for phasing out greyhound racing; the Conservative spokesperson referred to the evidence as “very, very powerful”; and – while not quite universal – there has been very strong support from Members on all sides of the political divide in Wales.

If a ban is achieved, it will be a cause of celebration for greyhounds – and animal welfare. But the campaign only went in this direction when it became obvious that this was the only option available to safeguard greyhound welfare.

Calls to phase out greyhound racing were built on evidence, hard work and monitoring outcomes – and politicians embracing these calls so quickly shows the compelling case ultimately made in the interests of these dogs.

The fact there hasn’t even been that much public debate since the ban was announced highlights the loss of approval for this activity from society.  Instead, they appear to be in agreement that it was time to act, and, importantly, the evidence suggests nothing less. It’s time to cut the chase.