Greyhounds could win greater protection as pressure mounts over ‘dying and vanishing’ dogs

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Ministers are considering tightening regulations on greyhound welfare as campaigners claim tens of thousands die needlessly and “disappear” each year.

The industry should be more open about numbers of deaths and injuries, officials at the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) said as MPs prepare to examine welfare guidelines this week.

Campaign group Greyt Exploitations says it has found that at least 40,000 greyhounds have been injured in the past 10 years on British tracks, and 18,000 have died.

It also says the industry “depends on” the unaccountable disappearance of thousands of the animals each year. In 2016 more than 10,000 greyhounds bred for British racing vanished, the group believes.

Downton Abbey star Peter Egan will be among the campaigners and experts giving evidence to the All-party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group on Tuesday as it looks at whether welfare has improved since Defra reviewed the regulations in 2015-16.

Trudy Baker of Greyt Exploitations will be on the panel.

There are no rules on how race greyhounds are treated in race kennels, where they spend 95 per cent of their lives, and no way to tell whether they are maltreated, neglected or abused.

MP Anna Turley wants a centralised register of greyhounds for people to be able monitor what happens to the animals after they retire, and said they should have the same legal protection as racehorses.

She told The Telegraph: “With the horseracing industry, the scale of injuries and deaths isn’t as bad, horses are far more expensive than greyhounds and dogs need to be treated as living animals and not seen as dispensible.”

But Dene Stansall, horseracing consultant for Animal Aid, said calling for the same protection wasn’t saying much, because racehorse welfare is greatly compromised in stables and there was no code of practice on how racehorses are treated away from the course.

“They suffer a host of ‘vices’ – what you and I would call psychological problems – from being confined, including biting things out of stress,” he said. Other signs are continually walking around the stable – stereotypic-style stress behaviour – and “wind sucking”.

Fed on an unnatural high-protein diet, a high number suffer painful gastric ulcers, said Mr Stansall. Confinement was cruel for both greyhounds and racehorses, he said.

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home also wants greyhounds to have more protection in trainers’ kennels, which are not covered by regulations in the same way as racecourses.

The charity wants the racing industry to be forced to contribute to their veterinary costs.

Earlier this year the Greyhound Board of Great Britain published for the first time injury and death data, showing that last year more than 1,000 retiring greyhounds either died or were put to sleep, with 257 killed trackside on “humane grounds”.

In 2010 new regulations set out welfare standards for greyhound tracks in England, requiring them to have a vet present at races, and for each dog to be examined beforehand. They said ventilated kennels must be provided.

Greyt Exploitations is running a petition calling for a law to force the Greyhound Board of Great Britain to publish detailed monthly injury statistics.

“Greyhounds are sentient creatures – not disposable gambling chips and the public have a right to know.”

Defra says the industry must be more transparent about the fate of retired racing hounds and is considering whether the regulations should be extended.

Voters in Florida next month will have a say on phasing out greyhound racing in the state by 2020, a move backed by celebrities including actor Pierce Brosnan.