Greyhound Action E-mail Newsletter #2 Winter 2002/2003
Demos against Australian greyhound exports | South Africa - dog racing stays illegal | Greyhound racing ends in Italy | Irish breeder banned for life | News from the USA | We've got a website! | Stopping them in their tracks
Greyhound Action goes international!
Sadly the suffering and slaughter of dogs caused by the greyhound racing industry isn't just limited to the UK, but occurs in many other countries where commercial greyhound racing takes place.
For this reason we have now formed an international section called Greyhound Action International (GAI) to fight to protect greyhounds throughout the world. GAI works alongside existing greyhound protection groups in other countries and helps with the creation of such groups where there are none in existence.
Greyhound Action International has already produced its own leaflets, helped set up greyhound protection groups in Ireland and Australia and issued Action Alerts against greyhound racing in Asia and the use of greyhounds for cruel experiments in Australia.
GAI can be contacted at the Greyhound Action address or @
greyhoundactioninternational@hotmail.com
or you can visit the new international website by clicking here
Demos against Australian greyhound exports
In September Greyhound Action International organized demonstrations in Australia, Ireland, and the UK to protest against the export of Australian greyhounds for racing in south-east Asia.
GAI issued a press release on Aug. 29 condemning the Australian racing authorities and federal live-animal export minister Warren Truss for exporting greyhounds to known dog-meat-eating countries. Press release packages were sent to all national and several local newspapers, more than 20,000 leaflets were distributed to the public and several local radio stations covered the protests.
On Sept 3, a demo was held in London outside the Australian High Commission and thousands of leaflets were distributed to the public and to the staff at the neighbouring BBC and BBC World Service buildings. The following day more than 20 people from Ireland and Scotland held a protest outside the World Greyhound Racing Federation offices in Clonmel, County Tipperary, and letters of protest were given to the WGRF's president, Gerry Desmond.
On Sept 9, a protest was held at the Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne and was the first demonstration highlighting the suffering of greyhounds ever to take place in Australia. Dogaid Australia later took part in a 20 minute programme on a popular radio station in Victoria, in which they outlined the plight of greyhounds in Asia and called for an export ban.
South Africa - dog racing stays illegal
In June, the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein dismissed, with costs, an application by the the United Greyhound Racing and Breeders Society (UGRABS) on the dog racing issue.
The case brought by UGRABS was a challenge to existing ordinances which prohibit dog racing and could be seen as an attempt to open the door to legalising the activity throughout the country. "This will not happen now," said NSPCA Executive Director Marcelle Meredith, "A potential disaster for greyhounds has been averted."
Following the court hearing, the NSPCA (South Africa's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), which opposed the UGRABS application, issued a statement saying that thousands of animals would suffer if dog racing were permitted and that that self-regulation did not work, with Ireland and the USA being illustrations of its failure.
In 1995 the South African Lotteries and Gambling Board was charged by the government with the task of reviewing and investigating arguments both for and against dog racing. The Board received presentations from people and parties on both sides and, based on the findings, recommended that no form of greyhound or any other dog racing be allowed, be it amateur or professional, and that legislation be vigorously enforced.
Greyhound racing ends in Italy
Greyhound racing came to an end in Italy earlier this year with the closure, through bankruptcy, of the Cinodromo dog race track in Rome. Over 350 dogs were left in the kennels at the stadium, but these are being found good homes in Italy, and in other European countries through the valiant efforts of greyhound rescue charity Greyhounds in Need.
The Rome Cinodromo was the only greyhound stadium left in Italy following the closure of the Naples track a few years ago. In 1999 Greyhound Action helped local animal protection campaigners to successfully oppose a proposed dog track in Cattolica, near Rimini.
Greyhound breeder John O'Connor has been fined £1,000 and banned from "owning" animals for life after inspectors from the Kildare Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals found dead and starving greyhounds at his kennels at The Curragh.
The British greyhound racing industry bears a large responsibility for the fate of greyhounds at the hands of people like O'Connor, as the vast majority of the dogs that run on British tracks are bred in Ireland.
Authorities in Baldwin County, Alabama arrested three more people on felony animal cruelty charges on November 7 in connection with nearly 2,000 greyhounds found shot to death in May on an 18-acre property in Lillian, Alabama. The town is just across the state line from Florida, where more than a third of the greyhound race tracks in the United States are located.
Back in May, authorities charged Robert Rhodes, 68, with three separate felonies after he admitted being paid $10 a dog to kill thousands of greyhounds since the 1960s, using a .22-caliber pistol to shoot the animals in the head. (Several cases have come to light in England recently, of "unwanted" greyhounds being shot by trainers etc. to save the veterinary fees of having them "put to sleep".
From information received by Greyhound Action, it appears that this barbaric practice is widespread. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to prove cruelty in this country, so the RSPCA has not been able to bring court cases against the individuals concerned)
In Arizona, voters have rejected (by an overwhelming 80% majority) Proposition 201, which would have expanded gambling at greyhound racing tracks and provided a new revenue stream for the greyhound racing industry. The failure of Proposition 201 has helped to minimize the profit that can be made from the exploitation of greyhounds.
Also in Arizona, state regulators have suspended licences held by Pinal County greyhound breeder and trainer Gregory Wood after he was found to be using live rabbits to train racing greyhounds, and his contract to race dogs at Phoenix Greyhound Park was cancelled.
Approximately 180 live rabbits were removed from Wood's farm by Pinal County Animal Control and it is likely that animal cruelty charges will be brought against him by the local Attorney's Office. (Once again, this is something which also happens in the UK. In 1999 the manager of the Hawick greyhound track in Scotland - now, thankfully, closed - and a local trainer were convicted of cruelty charges after they tied live rabbits to the track's artificial hare in order to train greyhounds)
Following an undercover investigation by state authorities, Jeremy J. Michaud, a greyhound trainer at the Geneva Lakes Kennel Club in Wisconsin, lost his licence and was fined $7,500 for beating a racing dog and injecting several dogs with steroids. Janet Diercks, a greyhound kennels owner, was fined $1,000 for helping Michaud.
As you obviously already know ... the new Greyhound Action website is up and running! The website will be updated on a very regular basis, so keep visiting the site for all the latest news about our campaign against greyhound racing.
The sister site for Greyhound Action International is also nearing completion, you can take a sneaky look by clicking here
If you live in or near...
Armadale, Ayr, Bannockburn, Bargoed, Birmingham, Bolton, Brighton, Cambois, Castleford, Crayford, Doncaster, Easington, Ellesmere Port, Glasgow, Gretna, Great Yarmouth, Harlow, Henlow, Hengoed, Hinckley, Hoddesdon, Hull, London, Manchester, Mildenhall, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Newton Abbot, Nottingham, Oxford, Peterborough, Pontefract, Poole, Portsmouth, Rotherham, Reading, Romford, Sheffield, Sittingbourne, Stainforth, Sunderland, Swansea, Swindon, Thornton, Warwick, Wheatley Hill, Wishaw, Wolverhampton
...you have a dog track on your doorstep. Contact Greyhound Action for details of how you can help to close it down.
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Greyhound Action
PO Box 127, Kidderminster, DY10 3UZ
Tel: 01562 700 043 Fax: 0870 138 3993