The future of greyhound racing in Scotland
UPDATE - Sign the open letter to the Scottish Government calling for a phased ban on Greyhound racing in Scotland below.
The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission has today published their report and recommendation for the future of greyhound racing in Scotland. Whilst the SAWC are a government-appointed scientific advisory body, they do significantly inform the decisions taken at Parliament level.
In the report, they come to a few principal conclusions:
In the case of Scotland, there is only one active greyhound racing track. This is an independent track, which is not answerable to the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, and can be found at Thornton in Fife.
The principal welfare concerns are around risk of injury, oversupply of puppies, the conditions in which they’re reared, and the risk of inadequate veterinary care.
However, there is a distinct lack of data on the welfare of racing greyhounds in Scotland, both during and after their racing careers. The above concerns have been taken from data that exists in other countries.
The Welfare Strategy of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, is not sufficient to ensure greyhound welfare, even if it were applicable to the independent track at Thornton. They did apply to join the GBGB, but their application was refused.
It would be desirable to have no organised greyhound racing in Scotland, although upon visits to Thornton Stadium there were judged to be no greyhound welfare concerns, other than the risk of injury inherent to the “sport”.
Finally, it makes four recommendations:
There is too much risk of poor greyhound welfare to justify the positive aspects of greyhound racing.
There must always be a vet present when a dog race is going on for dog safety and for general impartial oversight of dog welfare. This will also allow for independent data to be collected as to injury and fatalities, which could be reviewed in 3-5 years’ time to better inform the state of racing greyhound welfare.
There should be no new dog racing tracks established in Scotland due to concerns about the proposed measures being enough to safeguard dog wellbeing.
A scheme independent of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain should be established to ensure animal welfare, possibly through the Local Authority or the Scottish Veterinary Service.
We await the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee to consider this report at its meeting in a week’s time.
We also await the outcome of this afternoon’s debate in the Welsh Parliament debate on a petition to ban greyhound racing in Wales….
To read more about our joint campaign, visit our campaign page.