GREYHOUND WELFARE campaigners from the Greyhound welfare organisation Action for Greyhounds UK, together with local people held an impressive protest outside Yarmouth stadium, Norfolk for the final night of the greyhound racing Sky Sports/William Hill TV trophy.
The message from protesters was loud and clear, end greyhound racing, end the annual suffering and slaughter of many thousands of dogs caused by the greyhound racing industry.

Protesters, holding banners and placards, stridently expressed their disapproval at the treatment of ex-racing. A recent six-month inquiry by the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) has shown at least 13,478 greyhounds bred for racing are considered ‘surplus’ to the industry in England and Wales each year.

The RSPCA has echoed APGAW's ‘grave concern’ for the true scale of unwanted dogs being destroyed - and fears even these shocking figures are likely to be a ‘gross underestimate.’
The plight of greyhounds was also placed in the spotlight last year by the case of David Smith, the Seaham slaughterer, who killed 10,000 greyhounds during the course of 15 years (something which his father also did before him) with a bolt gun and buried them at his home in County Durham.

According to Action for Greyhounds, William Hill who sponsored the Sky Sports TV trophy at Yarmouth stadium puts more money into dog racing than any other bookie. William Hill also own greyhound stadiums, and the company pour millions of pounds into greyhound racing every year, through their betting-shops, on-line, digital racing channel and sponsorship of races.

In recent years the greyhound racing industry has been in decline, and with more tracks closing here in the UK, and with Northern Ireland's only major greyhound track, at Brandywell stadium looking set to disappear, its unpopularity is certain to increase as the public becomes more and more aware of what happens to the dogs. It is inevitable that share-prices of companies involved in greyhound racing will suffer considerably.