There is plenty of interest in the plight of ex-racers, trainers, and kennel staff, but what about the greyhound media? Who is looking out for them?
As the industry has contracted, many journalists have had to get real jobs. For the others, their afternoons are spent sprawled out on park benches clenching half empty cans of Heineken. They doze and remember the glory days. 50 tracks, full employment, afternoons snoozing on a park bench following a lunchtime necking of Kronenbourg 1664 (a proper lager).
Well its all wrong!
Having recently come over a bit ‘Bob Geldof’, I’ve decided to start a charity for displaced pissheads journalists.
I’ve done a bit of research, and plan to work on the Naomi Campbell fundraising model.
It won’t be easy or cheap, but somebody’s got to do it.
I’ve done a bit of research and found a nice head office in Kingston (that’s the Jamaican one, not that cold old hole in South London).
I’m calling the new venture ‘Hacked Off’ (good huh?) and have already billed the new charity with a £5k invoice for ‘creative innovation’.
That’s all there is to it really.
A confession – I’m not actually a fan of charities.
In a previous article, I used a quote suggested to me by homefinder Jayne Conway to describe charities:
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
In fact, the widely used quote is not strictly accurate. Eric Hoffer makes reference to a movement becoming ‘a cult or a corporation’
I think ‘corporate racket’ would improve the original because these charities are run as huge corporations.
I don’t know how much the CEO of RSPCA earned last year but a Google search suggests that in 2022, he earned £162,217.
Doesn’t that sound like a corporate salary to you?
Despite the rewards, Chris Sherwood is to leave the organisation at the end of the year to take up a similar role at the NSPCC.
Maybe he is taking a drop in pay? Maybe it was always his ambition to work for a children’s charity. We can only guess.
GBGB has long taken a view that we need to work with animal charities.
If they have concerns, we will address them. We will engage in open dialogue. We will go above and beyond to ease their concerns and get them on-side.
So it would have been a right kick in unmentionables when RSPCA, Blue Cross and Dogs Trust got together last year to rally Government to ban greyhound racing.
In reality, GBGB were only trying to play nicely because in the end, as the Board are fully aware, the only people that really matter are DEFRA.
The Board have worked long and hard at building up a good working relationship with the civil servants and have delivered transparently on the Animal Welfare Bill.
So – who don’t work openly with Government?
The animal charities!
While GBGB have to account for every animal registered – with way more safeguards and checks than any pet – the animal charities do not.
In fact, in the case of the RSPCA, they are very much under the cosh at the moment following the exposé over their ‘RSPCA Assured’ policy. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czj9nl88k0mo
(A little bird tells me that our old Friends Animal Rising planned to protest at the planned RSPCA 200 year ‘birthday party’ at the Shard, which was then swiftly cancelled)
‘The Society’ have promised a ‘review’. Presumably it will be as comprehensive and transparent as the one that led to their call to ban greyhound racing?
They are not good at transparency, the RSPCA.
Try looking for the figures to show how many animals they euthanase annually.
Best of luck with that!
As for Dogs Trust – they tell us ‘Dogs Trust Never Put a Healthy Dog Down”.
All very admirable – except, is it a little misleading?
I am *informed that they do. The organisation that had an income of £124.6m in 2022 will put dogs to sleep for ‘behavioural issues’. Because they don’t qualify as ‘healthy’.
* I will gladly rebuff this statement should Dogs Trust prove that it is incorrect.
But that doesn’t happen often since the Trust’s greatest skill is in their screening. If the animal is too old, unattractive or badly behaved, it is very unlikely that they will ever be accepted.
Of course, if you have no luck with Dogs Trust, give the RSPCA a call. If they take them in and they aren’t rehomed . . . . .I wonder what happens to them!
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The latest edition of the GBGB Calendar was particularly interesting. In addition to swelling their coffers with a string of fines for trainers caught up in the recent illicit Norethisterone debacle, there was one that dated back to September 2022 that took 23 months to be heard. Presumably we will soon know whether Mick The Miller tested positive in his last Derby Final.
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There has barely been a day in the last 40 years when I haven’t heard an industry rumour of some sort.
Some don’t make any sense and are clearly false. Others can be kicked into touch with a phone call. Many can’t be published because they would expose the source, and some turn out to be true.
The big one of the last week is the suggestion that ARC are to lease the four Entain tracks from January.
Is there any substance to it? I don’t know and have thus far drawn a blank in trying to find out.
As and when I do, I’ll be sure to update you.
“Editors Chair is an opinion article written by Floyd Amphlett who has been with the Greyhound Star since 1987. Floyd has experienced all of the major developments in greyhound racing for the past 40 years and maintains an enthusiastic interest in the progress and future development of the industry.”
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