November Update
This time of year is a real challenge for kennels; it is dark, wet and I feel like I spend most of my day with a towel in my hand drying off greyhounds. Last week I got a brief break, leaving the kennels in the capable hands of my team to attend the Board’s strategic planning sessions.
The meetings focused on welfare and future commercial opportunities for the sport and it was the first time that a number of us were able to meet in person. It was good to get in a room after nearly two years of Zoom calls and it was a pleasure to meet recently appointed Board members, Angela Smith and Professor Madeleine Campbell. They bring a huge amount of knowledge to the table and it is great to have them involved in driving our sport forward.
It was also good to hear from new Owners’ Practitioner Paul Carpenter. Paul is incredibly passionate about our sport and he and I share many of the same concerns and ambitions. I hope that we can work closely together to move things forward for both owners and trainers. Covid has opened many trainers’ eyes to the need to bring in a formal contract between owners and trainers, and this is something that Paul and I are keen to get over the line.
Professor Campbell is leading the development of GBGB’s new welfare strategy. This is very interesting work and, as Board members, we are all feeding our thoughts into her. It is going to be a very comprehensive document, centred around the simple premise that every greyhound in our sport deserves to have a good life. Once published, this will be our opportunity to be very clear about what we, as a sport, need financially from the bookmakers to meet every single one of our welfare ambitions.
The welfare strategy will look at how we can protect and promote the very best welfare standards at every stage of a greyhound’s life. With GBGB’s introduction of the GRS last year we have made huge progress towards the retirement of our dogs, but we need an equal focus on all areas. There are opportunities to think big here and outside the box, and I would welcome any trainers’ thoughts or ideas on how we can ensure that our welfare standards are watertight at every stage.
All in all, it was a positive couple of sessions and, as a Board, we have plenty of work to do. What is clear is that we need to work together as an industry; there is no room for factions of infighting. One of the key things I took away from the sessions is that the powers that be do recognise the issues at hand. We see the need to ensure that everyone in our sport gets a good deal. If it doesn’t work for breeders, owners and trainers, it doesn’t work for those at the top – and vice versa. I am hopeful that we will see progress in re-balancing the share of power in our sport so that we can realise its potential.
