by Warren Young, Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds
Humans have a tendency to avoid uncomfortable imagery.
For example, we might avoid the news when the media starts showing the horrors of war. When it comes to animals, we don’t want to see the killing of millions of animals for meat in slaughterhouses. How about we use a fancy French word like “abattoir” to hide the true meaning?
We find it important to show young children where their food comes from, so they might have a veggie garden in their school. We might even take them to a farm so they can pat the animals before they are taken away to be slaughtered. Just don’t show them the last part because that would be horrifying.
If people were allowed to visit a slaughterhouse and watch the routine killing of animals, many more would likely stop eating meat. But again, we look away and pretend it doesn’t happen.
The same seems to happen in greyhound racing. The industry likes to present an image of going to greyhound racing as a family fun activity. The truth is, unlike horse racing, hardly anyone actually goes to the track to watch greyhound racing. Punters are the only members of the public who have any interest in it, but they prefer to see the dogs racing on their screens. It’s doubtful whether the average punter even sees the dogs as animals, they might as well just be holograms running around. It’s just another form of betting for them.
What the greyhound racing industry doesn’t want us to see is the suffering that inevitably happens at the track when thousands of dogs are injured or killed around the country every year. The industry would prefer us to look away and ignore this ugly side of racing.
Much of greyhound racing is self-regulated which leads to a lack of transparency. The industry doesn’t want children to see horrible accidents at the track such as a screaming dog due to a fractured leg, and they don’t want us to access video of racing accidents, so they try to hide the offending vision.
Clearly there are some greyhound racing participants that care for their dogs. However, as reported in a study of greyhound racing participants, many trainers have a pragmatic view of their relationship with their dogs. They view them as commodities that may have to be sacrificed for the pursuit of their hobby.