When once the greyhound industry was accused of deliberately withholding its injury and retirement figures, the data is now so thorough that is takes a while to disseminate the information – writes Star Editor Floyd Amphlett.
Perhaps the biggest general concern among the public is the number of fatal accidents to greyhounds in training.
The number of on-course racing fatalities was 99 for the year. Even allowing for the lower number of races, that is half the figure from just five years ago, from 0.6-0.3%.
Now while I have no ambition to throw our equine friends under the bus, horseracing had 216 fatalities last year from around a quarter as many ‘performances’ (91,287 horses v 362,427 greyhounds).
In other words, one horse fatality for every 422 performances compared to one greyhound in every 3,360. Now, the ‘antis’ might state that we are not including ‘PTS’ away from the track. (But then neither do the horses.) Nevertheless, add in the other 44 euthanasias carried out post race meeting and it still works out at one in every 2,522 performances.
The point is made to highlight the morally bankrupt argument made be the RSPCA shysters when explaining why they need to target greyhound racing but not horseracing for a ban.
Small wonder they are unable to back up their demands with the evidence to justify it!
The percentage of injuries to run is pretty consistent around 1.20%. What these figures don’t make immediately obvious to the layman is that the majority of these are ‘performance affecting’ rather than ‘significant’ or ‘long term’. Indeed, anti racing supporters might argue that many minor injuries are never reported.
While it is hard to argue, the point is this. While a greyhound might be kept off the racing strength because it has lost five lengths in performance, human athletes are not so closely monitored.
When Bukayo Saka scored three goals for England on Monday night, it seemed barely relevant that he has been nursed though an Achiles injury for at least a couple of months. At the end of a long season, there was probably nobody on the pitch completely free of injury.
It is a whole different level of protection.
Nobody ever thinks of benching an 11 year old from the school football team just because they are carrying knocks and bruises.
The most common reason for lameness – hind limb muscle injuries (see below) – are extremely unlikely to cause any long term issues. Broken hocks, may or may not, lead to the termination of a career. And again, the vast majority of broken bones heal with no long term concerns.
The same cannot unfortunately be said for racehorses, indeed any horse, who breaks a legs.
The other major issue is of course retirement. What more explanation do you need than this?
That figure of 94.5% is the one to be borne in mind the next time any reader is confronted with an ignorant member of public stating “they put most of them to sleep when they’ve finished racing don’t they?”
In the first instance, it will always be impossible to achieve 100% re-homing due to some of the reasons detailed below, for example ‘terminal illness’.
Look too beyond the percentages to the figures themselves. As the percentage being re-homed increases, and the number being declined continues to fall, the gap between the two becomes more and more manageable.
Surely it cannot be beyond a vibrant industry, supported by owners, trainers and heavily supported charities, to re-home 5,300 greyhounds nationally in a year?
The final graphic covers the fate of those greyhounds who aren’t rehomed.
For the sake of ensuring that all greyhounds are accounted for, there is a necessity to include ‘sudden death’ and ‘terminal illness/natural causes’ in the figures – 44% of the total. The antis seldom remove these unfortunate animals from their figures when making their claims.
Look then at the huge reduction in the last five years for ‘treatment costs’ and ‘designated unsuitable for rehoming’. Both were once excuses used by unscrupulous owners and trainers to justify euthanasia.
The fact that so many track managements now foot veterinary bills, often running into five figures, is the single biggest reason for the decline in the treatment costs column.
As for designated ‘unsuitable for homing’ it would be interesting to compare how many greyhounds are put to sleep with the number destroyed by the RSPCA and other animal charities.
The RSPCA in particular love fact based evidence. Perhaps they could share some with us!
