According to recent reports would-be promoters of the as yet illegal greyhound racing industry tout the legalisation of this industry as having the potential to create 30 000 jobs and provide a R1,5bn tax offspin. Indeed a preliminary report from that University in the
The statements made are clearly a sop pandering to top politicians, in order to try and legalise what should remain banned. If we are now to legalise this form of animal exploitation, then why not legalise drug dealing, child pornography and the human slave trade? That would create a lot of jobs and tax offspin too.
But any offspin from Greyhound racing would only be short-term. Greyhound racing has not worked anywhere else in
But worst of all are the abuses inherent in this cruel and unethical 'sport' which critics oppose on the following grounds:
Only one in two dogs is deemed fit for racing, leading to tens of thousands of healthy dogs being killed every year. Some trainers prefer to drown or starve their dogs to death, thus preventing unwanted veterinary bills. Many more end up in laboratories, only to be further tortured by vivisectors conducting 'research.'
Once the 50% who 'make it' begin serious training, around their first birthday, they are kept in cages their entire racing lives – cages so small (90cm x 120 cm x 90 cm high) that they have room only to stand up and turn around. The backs and thighs of many racing dogs are worn bare and some dogs develop sores from lying in their cages for extended periods. A total of 22½ hours a day are spent in these crates.
The Greyhounds' freest moments come in the matter of seconds they spend racing. Yet this freedom is not without risk. Dogs rocketing out of their starting boxes are bunched tightly and turns on the racetrack are challenging. Spills can fracture bones and cause other injuries. The normal rigours of racing cause foot-pad abrasions, sprained ligaments and fractured right-front hocks, which absorb most of the concussion as dogs bend around counterclockwise turns.
Barbaric training techniques, such as tying a live rabbit to the mechanical arm, though illegal, are commonplace as many people believe that dogs trained on live lures qualify for racing twice as often as dogs trained on mechanical devices.
Very few retired greyhounds are ever re-homed as they first have to be rehabilitated before being adopted out. This requires a great deal of time and patience.
But in the end, the real issue here is that the exploitation of animals and turning them into commodities is part of a bigger picture of exploitation of the defenceless, whether human or non-human. It's up to us to decide whether our country is in need of a moral regeneration or whether we can afford to exploit sentient beings in the quest for a fast buck for the enrichment of a few.
