Doping Dogs

• Dogs are sometimes given illegal drugs such as Cocaine, Morphine and Amphetimines such as Speed. 'This can also be found on the GBGB website, under 'Disiplinaries' Dogs can either be sped up or slowed down.

• Drugs are mostly used to speed a dog up.

• Some dogs may be fed a heavy meal a few hours before a race to slow them down. This can cause bloat which is often fatal.
  (The dogs stomach dilates and twists)

• Some dogs tend to run on the inside of the track and others on the outside

• Therefore placing an outside dog in an inside trap – and an inside dog on an outside trap will cause them to cross the track to gain their usual running position.

• Doing this means dogs will crash into one another and can cause devastation costing the lives of dogs.

• Both doping of dogs and feeding before a race carries high risks for the dogs, including seizures, stroke, and death.

Source https://www.cagednw.co.uk/greyhoundcruelty.html

Injuries On The Track

• Under the GBGB Rules, there must be a qualified vet at every GBGB licensed track while dogs are racing.
  
  The vet checks each dog before a race but this does not protect the dog sufficiently because:
  
  The vet is not given enough amount of time to examine the dogs properly which means dogs are often run with injuries. Unless injury or illness is obvious they will be raced, exacerbating the injury.
  
  Some dogs may be given drugs such as anti inflammatories by their trainers to mask the pain so that they can still run.
  These dogs will eventually fall, or go completely lame.

  Source https://www.cagednw.co.uk/greyhoundcruelty.html
  

Why are dogs raced with injuries?

• Some trainers dogs are used for live streaming (TV broadcasting across the world)
  These are called BAGS trainers.
  Bags means Bookmakers Afternoon Greyhound Service

  Greyhound Trainers may;
  A) Own their dogs
  B) Kennel them for other owners
  C) Part own dogs

• For every dog entered in a BAGS race, a trainer is usually paid in the region of £20 to £40, depending on the track. The dog does not have to be placed. Payment is given even for the losers. Dogs have even been raced while blind or partially blind.

Source https://www.cagednw.co.uk/greyhoundcruelty.html

When a dog gets injured on the track

If it's a serious injury and the dog remains alive after the fall, the dog will be carried to the vet room usually by the owner, trainer, or any other assisting person but not normally by a qualified veterinary person.

If a dog has a break, especially in the spinal region, it may be made worse by moving the dog inappropriately (by an unqualified veterinary professional)

There are barely any resources at the track for an injured dog. There is only a vet room and a vet who can administer drugs such as painkillers or euthanasia.

We have been advised by insiders that dogs on many occasion are unnecessarily euthanised if a track vet does not carry enough painkillers to the track.

A dog may be sent home with an injury such as a broken hock after being given painkillers. Dogs are raced often of an evening, when vet practices are not open, and call out fees are expensive, therefore dogs may be left overnight without any emergency care, x-rays etc, other than the pain killers given by the vet.
(If a dog is sent home and later destroyed it will not show on the tracks data for deaths recorded due to injury. This benefits the track management, giving their reputation a boost for less injured dogs destroyed at their track)

There is no guarantee a dog will be taken to a vet surgery after he/she has left the track. There are no follow up checks. Dogs may be left lame, for example with broken toes, hocks etc, for months with no treatment given.
Some will have calcified joints or horrific bone malformations due to being left without treatment.
Many of these cases have been witnessed by rescue centres and campaigners

The Murder Of The Greyhounds

The Captive Bolt Gun
It is legal for any person to destroy greyhounds using a captive bolt gun. No training or license is required by law.

Use of the Captive bolt gun.
The bolt gun is placed on a specific area of the skull – If misplaced, it will cause horrific injury and will not render the dog fully unconscious.
This may cause the killer to make repeated attempts, destroying the dog in a most inhumane manner, while causing horrific pain, terror and suffering.

Deaths Of Innocent Greyhounds

Dogs are very often destroyed at flapping tracks. A vet may attend a flapping track specifically to destroy dogs that are not fast enough, injured, or just no longer wanted for racing. These death figures are not recorded.

Homed dogs are also often retained dogs, this means they are kept by their trainer/owners when they are no longer racing on a licensed track.

These dogs are no longer registered to race so are classed as 'no longer' responsible for by the GBGB therefore they may be later;

1) Exported to race or for breeding, to countries where there are no welfare laws to protect them, such as Pakistan, Spain, China, Romania, etc

2) Used for breeding in trainers kennels, until they are no longer producing, and then destroyed
​
3) Sent onto race at flapping tracks

4) Kept on allotments in horrific conditions, with little to no proper shelter, bedding, stimulation, or vet treatment – also left outdoors in freezing weather throughout the winter.