NORAH MCELLISTRIM: WHAT WELFARE MEANS TO ME

Tougher stewarding, a homing kennel for every track and a shake up at the Greyhound Trust (formerly the Retired Greyhound Trust) are Norah McEllistrim’s three main hopes for 2018.

 

Background: knowledgeable and passionate

When it comes to industry credibility, Norah ticks every box. Born into greyhounds as daughter of the famous ‘Paddymac’ McEllistrim, who had runners on the first meeting at Wimbledon, Norah took over the kennel four decades ago.

Her whole life is dedicated to greyhounds and she is as passionate about welfare as she is about racing.

The fiery blonde famously led a trainers revolt several years ago which saw racing stopped mid meeting due to a view that the track had become unsafe.

She currently has 20 of her own ex-racers, though that too is a family tradition.

She said: “Although it wasn’t common at the time, my father also had a kennel of retired dogs. In fact, until I joined Hove and we needed the kennel space, I always had around 40.”

 

Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare

In addition to her own home-finding efforts, Norah was a founder member of Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare, a retirement kennel independent of the Greyhound Trust.

She said: “Many years ago, the local scheme at Wimbledon was very underfunded and couldn’t take enough dogs, so a couple of us got together and decided to set up our own kennel at Godstone.

“Everybody told us that we would go skint but we did it anyway. We did lots of fund raising, Pat Bannister and Denise Dubarbier did a tremendous job. The kennel was run by former trainer Mary Harding.

We used to advertise for local people to come and walk the dogs on a Sunday which led to more donations and dogs being re-homed.

In fact, Bob Boswell, who became the Chairman of the Wimbledon and Hove Owners Associations, and his wife Paula, were both introduced to greyhound racing as volunteer walkers at the retired kennel.”

The Godstone operation was so successful that they had to transfer some of the runners to Mary Harding’s Hersham range. It continued to expand and when Sam Sykes’ kennel, became free, ‘Hersham Hounds’ was born.

It is a carefully controlled operation costing around £80K per year to keep functioning.

Norah said: “You have to be professional and in Carol Cowie, we have a first class kennel manager, able and dedicated. We have roughly a dozen staff, including four full-timers, some part-timers, plus volunteers.

“Every greyhound is well fed, we use some complete feeds, but also a lot of fresh food. Every greyhound goes out at least five times a day in the winter, and six in the summer. The kennels are old but they are always spotlessly clean and warm”

 

Funding

The kennel survive on fund raising, and donations. There is even the occasional legacy.

(Although she never mentioned it, it is known that Norah was recently left a six-figure legacy and immediately turned it over to Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare (Hersham Hounds). They are no push overs though. When one old gent left in the region of £80K to the kennel for new fencing, and it had inadvertently gone to the RGT headquarters, WGW threatened to sue until it was handed back. It eventually was).

A decent chunk of the donations accompany the new arrivals. For example, Ladbrokes pay £550 for every pair of ex-Crayford hounds who come into the kennel.

Norah said: “That is the figure after they have been spayed or neutered while still with their former trainers. We shop around for best prices from the vets, though we also do a few bits and pieces ourselves.

“For example, if a dog comes into the kennel with poor teeth, my staff will often lend a hand to clean them up and save on vet costs.”

Hersham Hounds homed well over 200 greyhounds in 2017.

Norah said: “What was particularly pleasing was the number of older dogs who we were able to re-home, including an eleven year old just recently.

“They are often sad stories of divorces or leases running out and owners not being able to find alternative premises that allow pets.

“But whenever a dog goes, we ask the owner for an assurance that if anything goes wrong, they will contact us first and we will arrange the pick up the dog immediately.

“At the moment we have space for 80 greyhounds but the kennels are rented. Although the rent is very reasonable, our long term ambition is to own the freehold on our own kennels.

“It would never be feasible to buy our current kennels. This is a very expensive area, and because the land might one day be allowed permission for development, we would be priced out of the market.

“Even is a less sought after area, we know it would cost in the region of £300-400,000, but we have that already put aside.

 

Industry homefinding

Norah says: “Personally, I think every track should have a kennel for its ex-racers. Some already have facilities in place and are excellent.

“They need to be professionally run and well funded. We even launch appeals for operations and people come forward. It is surprising how much can be raised if you go about it correctly.

I would always recommend a dog walking scheme. They bring in extra volunteers and funding and you can generate a great atmosphere. The regulars build up a social network and really look forward to it every week.

“Having a specialist kennel also allows you time to evaluate the dogs properly. There are very few that can’t be homed, though some take a bit more patience than others and need to be carefully placed.

“I have one here, Aviton Charlie, who is lovely with people but would literally kill other dogs. For that reason, he isn’t in the kennel; he stays in my office.”

In view of the above, Norah supports the Greyhound Trust campaign to have their own kennel, though she remains sceptical about the direction in which the organisation is going.

She says: “There seems to be less and less connection with the sport, and less understanding of what is needed.

“For example, they have recently cut funding for some homefinders down to £3 per day, per dog. You could barely feed a dog for that, let along run a kennel with electricity and staff. It should be a minimum of £5.

“The other thing that really irritates me is that the individual branches raise money, and it all has to be paid over to head office. That would infuriate me and is the reason why we remain independent.

“Anybody who understood our industry would understand that commitment to the local branch. But the Greyhound Trust have lost so many good people, volunteers, who feel undervalued. Morale among the home finders is absolutely rock bottom.

“I would gladly take a role on the Greyhound Trust if they asked me, though I doubt they ever would because I would be too adamant in my ideas.”

 

Should they be racing?

Norah squares the circle that so many antis failed to understand – although a strong welfarist, she does not believe that racing is intrinsically cruel.

She said: “Those people who say they don’t enjoy racing are just talking rubbish. You should come to my kennel on raceday and see the dogs trying to push past each other to go on the van.

“Greyhounds love racing and it takes around six to eight months after they have retired, before they realise that they won’t be going racing again. That is why some dogs are better able to adapt in retirement kennels.

“Yes, injuries are part of life with any kind of athlete, but the bad ones are very rare. When they happen, it is very sad, but overall, they love their lives if they are well looked after.

“But injuries can happen anywhere. I can think of three dogs we have retired who have broken hocks in their new homes, either in the garden or the park.

“I saw one dog at a show who kept lifting a foot of the ground. When I asked the owner what the problem was she said, ‘we took him to the vet and he said there was nothing the matter with him, he was just lifting the paw to get attention’.

“I looked at the leg and suggested she take him to vet Martin Bennett who x-rayed him and found a hairline fracture. When I saw the lady again she said, ‘I did remember afterwards that he fell down the stairs about a month ago.”

 

Improvements needed

Norah believes that the starting point for welfare should be to fund more stipendiary stewards and to insist on them being more robust in their inspections.

She said: “The stipe normally comes about twice a year, goes through your books and is then gone. We need more stipes and the sort that know the game, and are prepared to be hard but fair.

“The late Irene McNally was a superb stipe. She knew what to be looking for, and she was unmoveable – not rude – but absolutely clear that she would take no nonsense.

“I think we should have enough stipes that every kennel is visited every three months and all the dogs should be checked over by someone with an understanding of their condition.

“If they find a problem, such as dogs with dirty teeth, or fleas, the trainers should get the equivalent of a yellow card. Any dogs found that way, would be suspended for two weeks, and then checked again. Any persistent offenders should have their licenses suspended.

“I have seen other cases where the stewards have covered up for trainers with a warning to improve, yet they were soon doing the same things again. Take the licence off them, don’t keep giving them warnings!.

“I would like to see more action from the vets too. We had a bitch bought here who was three kilos below her racing weight in Ireland and had been consistently trialling. What was that track vet doing letting her run? It was obvious to anybody.

“I remember we took at stance when the Catford trainers arrived at Wimbledon and many of the dogs were covered in fleas. I said to the vet, ‘how can you let these through?’.

“He took me at my word, checked every dog and warned the trainer, ‘if this dog is presented to me again in this condition, he will be suspended from racing’. What happened? Instant cure!”

 

Small trainers are important

When Norah started as a kennelgirl at Wimbledon, the track operated a policy of ‘exactly 40 greyhounds per kennel and four full time staff, (excluding the trainer) of which two had to be over 21 years of age.

Nor were they just ‘ghost kennelstaff’, Head of Racing Con Stevens, would check up and woe betide any trainer caught understaffed.

Norah realises that the underfunded industry can no longer afford that level of manpower, but, paradoxically, believes the small kennels and amateur owner trainers are vital to make the finances work.

Basically, the small kennels take little or nothing in retainers, and thus give the bigger kennels a better opportunity to remain financially stable.

She said: “I think the small trainers should be encouraged. Anybody can keep four to six greyhounds in good condition, and those I have seen have been excellent.

“Most of the problems are with a small percentage of ‘supposed’ professional trainers.

“Their dogs don’t get enough care and attention. Sometimes they come into Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare and they soil their bends every day. Very few greyhounds will do that out of choice.

“They simply haven’t been let out enough in the kennel routine, but once they experience it, they soon adapt.

“We had one dog here recently who would poo in his kennel and run around getting it everywhere., on his bed and all up the walls. A few weeks later, being regularly let out, he is now clean. It shouldn’t really be that difficult, greyhounds generally sleep around 12 hours a day.

“I honestly believe that the bad trainers are in a minority, and the rest of us are guilty of not reporting them for fear of being ostracised.

“That needs to stop if we are ever going to raise standards.”