Valley promoter Malcolm Tamms is asking greyhound supporters worldwide to sign a petition that he has posted on the Welsh Senedd website calling on them to support greyhound racing.

CLICK PICTURE FOR LINK

The full petition reads:

The Welsh Government are currently considering banning greyhound racing in Wales.

This potential ban has been brought on through a petition submitted by a charity. I believe the information used to create that petition was not factually correct and that they used massively inflated figures on the number of injured greyhounds with no supporting evidence. The charity has been asked for evidence on multiple occasions but refused. The petition gained 35k signatures but less than 19k of these signatures came from within Wales.

Banning greyhound racing would have an economic impact on individuals involved in the industry. There would also be a direct impact on the Valleys Stadium, and the medium and long term development of the Ystrad Mynach area.
There would also be a negative impact on the greyhound breed.
Valley Greyhound Stadium is currently in the process of becoming a GBGB registered track.

All tracks licensed by GBGB must adhere to the regulator’s Rules of Racing which seek to uphold the very highest standards of greyhound welfare and integrity. There are over 200 rules covering all aspects of how the sport is run and regulated including how greyhounds are cared for when they are at the track, at home in their trainer’s residential kennels, when being transported and into their retirement.

The Senedd currently has a cross party group to support horse racing in Wales, we ask that the same support is shown for greyhound racing.

 

Tamms said: “This isn’t just about greyhound racing. There are lots of other sports too who will be affected by this. My son is into hunting and he is asking people who follow that to sign up. We want the Senedd to understand that people are passionate about greyhound racing. We can’t let the fanatics win.”

“The Welsh Government put £1.5m into horse racing in Wales last year and we only have three tracks. So why are they against greyhounds? Or is it just greyhounds? If they were to ban greyhound racing, could I open up again with lurcher racing, or whippet racing? It makes no sense.”

Tamms believes that globally based animal activists see Valley as an easy target and if successful will continue their pursuit of the remaining greyhound racing countries worldwide. He has also faced more local battles with Hope Rescue, something he has laid out on the stadium website.

 

Despite the ongoing issues with the Welsh Government, Tamms is hopeful that Valley will be licensed as a GBGB venue and ready to race by June of this year.

He said: “We were refused planning on a couple of issues. One related to flooding risk and the other was a traffic impact survey. The flooding issue is bizarre. If the worst came to the worst, it wouldn’t just be us that would be flooded, it would be the entire area underwater. Why pick on us? But both have now been sorted and we are confident of no further issues.

“The rest of the work has already been carried out. A lot was done previously when we thought we were going to be bought by Star Sports. The traps are waiting to be fitted and then there is nothing to hold us back apart from a GBGB inspection which we are confident of passing with flying colours.”

Should Tamms confidence be well placed, the GBGB’s 21st track could well have an SIS contract by mid-summer.

The new kennel block