The number of dogs being exported to countries with no welfare such as China seems to be increasing. I am reading the many names of greyhounds who have been sent there, and despair. I cannot understand why anyone would export their dog to China, a country with a brutal history of dog killing which carries on today. Why is no one in the sport trying to stop them? Why are they getting away with the trade in misery for their dogs? None of these poor greyhounds will enjoy any kind of decent life or retirement, and as for the pups, I daresay the meat trade will be only to happy to take the ones who do not or cannot please their owners enough. I sometimes think this sport cannot sink any lower, but of course it has.
Regards,
S. Cotton
While nobody would attempt to justify the trade in dogs to China for meat purposes, it is clear that most were not intentionally sacrificed by their owners.
There appear to numerous occasions where dogs were sold cheaply or given away in good faith with no reasonable expectation that this would be their fate. Indeed, it is absurd to imagine that anyone would set up a business to export greyhounds 5,000 miles from England to China for meat. They could surely breed them a lot cheaper locally, or source them from a closer proximity, even Australia?
Besides, a number of valuable greyhounds have been sold to millionaire owners in China as part of a breeding programme. A good example was Australian stud dog Big Daddy Cool, sire of Derby runner-up Tyrur Shay. We cannot confirm the exact figure but the purchase price for the dog’ Australian owners was a long way into six figures.
Regretably, even the best welfare organisations cannot guarantee that animals they re-home, will not ultimately suffer. Illness or a broken relationship can often result in diligently re-homed dogs ending up in the wrong hands or abandoned. None of which of abdicates any owner from carrying out all reasonable checks as to the future of their dogs.
One final point – and it is one that the anti-racing contingent should bear in mind. If well meaning owners are ostracised on the very rare occasion where their efforts backfire on them, many will inevitably consider enthanasia as their first and safest option. That cannot be in anyone’s best interests – Ed
