Welfare of greyhounds used for racing: report

4. SAWC evidence gathering and analysis

In gathering evidence to evaluate the welfare of greyhounds used in racing in Scotland SAWC initially conducted a literature search for relevant peer-reviewed publications. In general, there is a paucity of published information on greyhound welfare, and no publications specifically relating to racing in Scotland. A significant percentage of the literature on welfare of racing greyhounds considers Australian racing, which may not be exactly similar to racing in the UK, but we have made use of this literature where general physical or biological principles are explored, or where conditions appear to be similar to those in the UK. The published literature on welfare at racing is almost exclusively focused on welfare of animals in racing and at the track, particularly focusing on track design and injuries, and we were unable to find scientific literature focusing on pre-racing lives of greyhounds, their welfare during training or welfare of retired greyhounds.

To supplement the review of the scientific literature, SAWC also visited the Thornton Stadium in November 2022, where we observed six races, and spoke to the owners of the stadium, owners/trainers of greyhounds taking part in races, members of the public attending, but not with dogs, and the single bookmaker present at the track. Following this visit we received a significant correspondence from attendees or proponents of the activity, who provided their testimony of the role of greyhound racing in their lives, and in some cases evidence for the living conditions of some of the dogs involved (e.g., photographs of greyhounds in the family home and kennelling). In addition, we have met with and taken evidence from a number of bodies involved in the industry of greyhound racing and interested charities or NGOs. The full list of the organisations who gave verbal evidence to SAWC is provided in Appendix II.

In addition to verbal evidence, SAWC also considered the GBGB documents that are publicly available (particularly the newly published Welfare Strategy) and had access to the independent report produced for Dogs Trust and RSPCA. As this document is not in the public domain we used it for background information only; we have neither directly quoted from it, nor relied on it in formulating our opinions. A summary of the conclusions of this report is given in Appendix III.