Greyhound Action E-mail Newsletter #4 Winter 2003/2004
More
woe for Wembley | Liverpool - the fight goes
on! | Diamonds not going to the dogs!|
No
dogs for Dewsbury? | Successful
Stalls | Rugby Rally
| Lacs Lacking |
Good news!
| GA's local
group network is expanding rapidly
No more dogs at Catford ! - major track forced to close
The Greyhound Racing Association (GRA) has closed its Catford track in south-east London.
The track had been
losing money because of declining attendances in recent years and the
site is now likely to be sold for residential property.
This is the second GRA track in the London area to close in recent years.
Greyhound racing at its Wembley track came to an end in 1998 due to poor
attendances. At least half a dozen greyhound tracks have closed in and
around London in the past 20 years.
Catford Stadium was the subject of scandal in August 2002 when a greyhound
called Football Focus died in the kennels there of heat exhaustion and,
on the BBC TV Kenyon Confronts exposé of greyhound racing in December
2001, a trainer who ran greyhounds at Catford was caught on camera admitting
that he gave large meals to dogs before racing to slow them down, so big
money could be won on them in subsequent races.
Top officials of dog track operators Wembley plc (parent company of the GRA) have been charged by a grand jury in the USA on 22 counts of attempting to bribe public officials to get approval for additional slot machines at its Lincoln Park (Rhode Island) greyhound track and prevent the introduction of a Native American casino.
The news sent Wembley's
shares plunging and wiped £48 million from the stock market value
of the company, to add to the big reduction in profits it has suffered
over the past two years.
Meanwhile, by a landslide 81% - 19% margin, voters in the USA defeated
Amendment 33, which would have legalized thousands of slot machines at
Wembley’s three Colorado dog tracks, despite the company having spent
more than $6 million on glossy television ads trying to convince people
in the state to approve the measure.
Liverpool - the fight goes on!
The Greyhound Racing Association has lodged an appeal with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister against the refusal in June by Liverpool City Council of its application to build a greyhound stadium in Fazakerley, and a public inquiry will now be held.
Local residents in Fazakerley and supporters of Greyhound Action will be fighting tooth and nail to get the appeal turned down - and we hope to bring you more news as soon as we hear it.
Diamonds not going to the dogs!
In July 2002 we launched a campaign in response to newspaper reports that a greyhound stadium could be built next to the Rushden & Diamonds football ground at Nene Park, Irthlingborough, Northants.
Many thanks to all
our supporters who sent messages/letters to the directors of the football
club and of the R Griggs Group (owners of the site) asking them not to
build the dog track.
This November we received a message from Howard Johnstone, a director
of both R Griggs Group Limited and Rushden & Diamonds FC, in which
he says:-
"As a result of the current challenges facing the R Griggs Group,
to which you have previously referred, the future development of the land
in Irthlingborough has not been a matter for discussion whatever during
the last 12 months or so, nor is it likely to be a priority in the foreseeable
future.
"The points made by your supporters will have been noted by my colleagues
and will undoubtedly be properly considered if and when appropriate in
the future."
This follows the news that Max Griggs (President of the R Griggs Group
and Chairman of the football club) has put the Diamonds complex up for
sale and stated that he would be happy to pass the club itself on to the
right person for nothing.
We are therefore no longer asking our supporters to contact the R Griggs
Group and Rushden & Diamonds directors. However, if at any time in
the future, the possibility of greyhound racing at Irthlingborough arises
once again, we would, of course, re-launch the campaign against it.
The proposed greyhound track next to Dewsbury Rams Rugby Club is looking more and more like it's not going to happen, following a decision by the rugby club not to renew their contract with the Greyhound Racing Association (GRA), who were due to run the track. At a public meeting in September, the club chairman Mark Sawyer said that backers of the track had not come up with enough money to make it viable at this time.
In addition, Kirklees
councillor Paul Kane, who represents the Dewsbury East ward, has stated,
in relation to the proposed track that "there is no chance in the
short term of this happening and not much chance in the long term either"
.
Many thanks to all of you who wrote to Dewsbury Rams officials and Kirklees
Borough councillors in support of our campaign to stop the track. The
campaign is now on hold, but we will re-launch it if there is any more
mention of a possible greyhound track in Dewsbury.
Greyhound Action supporters had great success with stalls at the National Vegan Festival in London in September and at World Vegan Day events in Bristol and Essex on November 1st.
Please contact us if you hear of a local event where you would like to do a stall for Greyhound Action - and we can also give you useful advice on street stalls and other educational/fundraising activities.
Protestors fighting plans to bring greyhound racing to Coventry Stadium staged a mass demonstration in Rugby town centre on Saturday, October 18th.
The demo was held
in Rugby because the village of Brandon, where the stadium is situated,
comes within the area of Rugby Borough Council.
Dozens of demonstrators (200 according to the Rugby Advertiser), including
Rugby MP Andy King, gathered at Rugby Town Hall, before making their way
up to the main shopping precinct where they leafletted members of the
public and collected about 2,000 signatures for a petition against the
proposed track.
Later in the afternoon about 40 demonstrators made their way to Brandon
where they carried on their protest outside the stadium itself. This coincided
with a very big speedway event being held there and lots of leaflets were
given out to people going in.
You can see more pictures and read more about this rally by clicking here
or for more general info on the campaign to stop the Brandon track click
here to go to the Coventry Against Greyhound Exploitation webpage.
We were happy to co-operate with the League Against Cruel Sports in the production of their leaflet on greyhound racing, which states "Greyhound racing is an industry, its aim is profit. Don’t support it and don’t bet on it. Greyhounds are dying to entertain you."
However, we are not
so happy with the overall LACS campaign with regard to dog racing, which
calls for various welfare reforms, rather than a public boycott and an
outright ban.
Commercial greyhound racing inevitably creates a demand for a large number
of dogs to be bred to fuel the demands of the tracks. Most of these greyhounds
will end up being "put to sleep" , or worse, when surplus to
the requirements of the dog racing industry, simply because there are
not, and never will be, enough homes available for them to go to.
No amount of welfare measures can change this, which is why greyhound
racing must be abolished, or at least boycotted out of existence.
back to top of page
Good news!
2003 was a very good year for GA and a very bad year for the Greyhound racing industry world wide. More and more people are discovering the cruelty behind the glossy facade and abandoning the industry...2004 can only get better for us and worse for them.
>> Following letters of protest about them using an image of racing greyhounds for advertising, Andrews Estate Agents expressed regret and made a donation of £150 to Greyhound Action.
>>
Digital greyhound racing channel Gobarkingmad has been put into compulsory
liquidation over unpaid bills.
>> The
North West events organiser for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute
stated that she would not be staging another event at any dog stadium,
following protests about an RNLI "night at the dogs" fundraising
event at Belle Vue greyhound track in Manchester.
>> The
Bord na gCon (Irish Greyhound Board), which runs greyhound racing in the
Irish Republic, made an operating loss of 7,778,140 Euros (almost £5½
million) for the year end 2002.
>> Greyhound
racing supporters in Massachusetts withdrew a bill that would have subsidized
dog racing with millions of dollars in casino gambling profits after an
intense lobbying effort by animal protection advocates and other concerned
groups.
>> The
operating profit from the four tracks owned by Gaming International has
fallen by a massive 41.6 per cent and, according to a statement from the
company, "Since 30 June attendances at our UK greyhound stadia have
been poor however, this is generally in line with the UK Greyhound Racing
industry as a whole."
back
to top of page
GA's
local group network is expanding rapidly
The last
couple of months has seen a rapid expansion of our local group network.
Where no group exists, people have taken things into their own hands and
formed new groups to campaign against their local tracks. There are now
14 groups listed in our Local groups
section with more seemingly forming every week.
If there is no group close to you, why not start your own? GA can provide
you with plenty of practical help and experience as well as campaign materials
and ideas ... what are you waiting for?
Printed/ Email Version
If you would also like the printed version of our newsletter sent to you through the post (which contains more photos), please send us an e-mail giving your postal address. Alternatively if you want to subscribe to our email newsletter and urgent action alerts, email us and let us know.
Greyhound Action
PO Box 127, Kidderminster, DY10 3UZ
Tel: 01562 700 043 Fax: 0870 138 3993