GA Demo at William Hill AGM
Covent Garden, London, Thursday, May 19th
Shareholders urged to reject dog racing

Supporters of Greyhound Action, holding banners and placards and accompanied by rescued greyhounds, staged a picket on Thursday, May 19th outside the William Hill AGM at the Covent Garden Exhibition Centre in London, where they leafletted shareholders going into the meeting as part of a campaign to persuade the company to cease its involvement in greyhound racing and concentrate on humane alternatives, such as virtual (computerised) racing, instead.

One demonstrator was dressed as the Grim Reaper to draw attention to the mass slaughter of dogs caused by the greyhound racing industry.

The demo attracted a considerable amount of publicity, including a piece on Sky News and a lengthy feature on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show, which has increased support for our campaign to put an end to commercial greyhound racing.

William Hill, Britain's largest bookmaker, already owns two greyhound stadiums (at Sunderland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne) and is rumoured to be about to purchase a third. In addition, the company pours millions of pounds into greyhound racing every year, through its betting-shops, on-line betting and digital racing channel.

All this means that William Hill bears a large responsibility for the tragic fate of many thousands of greyhounds that suffer and die at the hands of the dog racing industry every year.

With many William Hill shareholders being, almost certainly, unaware of the death and suffering caused by the dog racing industry, we wanted to educate them about this and persuade them that, morally and financially, it would be better for the company to disengage from greyhound racing.

Virtual racing is rapidly increasing in popularity, whereas the greyhound racing industry has been in decline, with dozens of tracks closing in recent years - a process that is likely to continue as more and more people become aware of the tragic fate of so many of the dogs involved.

For this reason, it would make sound economic sense for William Hill to transfer its resources from live greyhound racing to its virtual equivalent, and thousands of dogs would be spared from suffering and an untimely death in the process.

GA UK