The independent home finding centres and rescues- ie organisations independent of the Greyhound Trust – are a vital part of greyhound racing’s re-homing ambitions. They do not have the resources of the GT, nor do they receive significant publicity. As a result, I have asked Kevin Stow of the Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust, to produce a regular updates on the news and work of the independent homefinders. This is the first, of hopefully, many diary pieces. We invite other organisations to contact Kevin.

Floyd Amphlett – Editor

 

BY KEVIN STOW

Although the national Greyhound Trust (GT) receive a £1.4million donation from the sport they are not the only charity that helps the sport to find homes for the retired racers when their racing careers are over.
It is fair to say that a number of the independent greyhound homing charities are anti-racing and have made it clear that they wouldn’t ask for, or want, any financial assistance from the sport, however there are a number of independents who are supportive of racing, don’t have a standpoint or who are pragmatic enough to realise they could help more with additional funding regardless of their ‘political’ stance.
In addition there are many all breed charities who rehome a significant number of retired GBGB greyhounds as well as a fair number of owners and trainers who rehome privately.

Listed below are just 4 of the many independents that are finding homes for GBGB retired greyhounds. If you’d like your charity included next month then please do get in touch.

 

Durham District Retired Greyhounds (DDRG)
This is one of the newest charities having only got charity status in June this year, but they have already homed 15 greyhounds in their short time.
For more info on DDRG please call 07876 077093

Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust (LGT)

Despite the name LGT are not part of the national Greyhound Trust leaving in May 2004 to become an independent charity.
Since December 1998 LGT have rehomed 1,737 different greyhounds and have successfully homed 126 to date in 2018.
Future events lined up include street collections/awareness days in Hull on 3rd November, Retford on 17th November, Grantham on 8th December, Stamford on 15th December and Lincoln on Sunday 16th December as well as being at Ware Dickensian Evening on Friday 7th December starting at 6pm.For more information on LGT please call 0794 131 3025

Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare (WGW)

WGW are also known as Hersham Hounds and has been an independent since 2011.
In October thanks to greyhound advocate Julie Collier, kennel dog Leeroy appeared on ITV’s This Morning and, along with handler Carol Cowie, appeared to wow Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. The great news is that Leeroy is now out on a trial with his prospective new owners.
For more info on WGW please call 01932 251894

Yarmouth Greyhound Homefinders (YGH)
YGH are a relatively new independent having left the national Greyhound Trust in March 2017. They are another group that have rehomed over 1,000 greyhounds in their time and have homed 78 to date in 2018.
They have greyhound walks line up at Whitlingham Park on 18th November and Saxlingham Nethergate on 8th December plus a Christmas Fayre at Taverham Village Hall at11am on 24th November.
They are also currently running a raffle to win a flight over Norfolk and surrounds in a private plane. £5 a ticket with the draw to take place on New Years Eve.For more info on YGH please call 0845 458 3797

This bit may be something that you want to address separately in a different article, but I do feel from a racing point of view this is letting us down:

Greyhound-data
While I am aware that Greyhound-data is not an official site it is interesting to see that of the 4 UK charities on GD that have recorded homing over 1,000 greyhounds 3 of them Yarmouth Greyhound Homefinders, Romford Greyhound Owners Association and Lincolnshire Greyhound Trust are independents while the only Greyhound Trust branch with over 1,000 is Dunton.
Clearly there are many other Trust branches who have done this number, but it is a shame that they do not use this site as it is used by the public to look at siblings etc and the more greyhounds that had the link underneath to say ‘homed by’ would be a fairer reflection and show the sport in a better light.
Although the £1.4million donation is given without conditions it surely wouldn’t be too much to ask the national charity to ensure all the greyhounds rehomed through their branches were included on this site?