Scotland on Brink of Greyhound Racing Ban
Political impulse is edifice inwards Scotland for an outright ban on greyhound racing, and a determination could come as presently as tomorrow.
A parliamentary military commission is expected to redeem a “pivotal recommendation” on the future tense of the athletics to the Scots English givernment inwards Holyrood on Wednesday. If the charge recommends a ban, the authorities testament potential lot the wheels in motion.
Scotland is expected to suit the number one country inwards the UK to banning the sport, which power eventually induction other nations inwards the jointure to fall out suit, according to The Times of London.
The UK has 25 domestic dog racing tracks, the vast legal age of which are inwards England.
Dog Days of Racing
Scottish greyhound racing has been inward decline since its heyday inwards the 1930s and 1940s. Today, the country has only if unity track, Thornton Greyhound Stadium inward Fife, which is unregulated. That way it lacks mandatory drug testing and trackside veterinarians.
The cobbler's last regulated sports stadium inwards the country was Shawfield inwards South Lanarkshire. It did non reopen after the COVID-19 lockdown.
A petition to ending greyhound racing in Scotland has received over 130,000 signatures.
The drive to ban the sportsman is spearheaded by Scotland Against Greyhound Exploitation (Sage), with backup from numerous fauna charities, including The Dogs Trust, Scots English SPCA, RSPCA, and the Blue Cross.
They peak to statistics from the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) that to a greater extent than 3,000 racing dogs died from 2017 to 2020, with an estimated 18,345 injured over the same period. The GBGB emphasizes the statistics also included dogs that died from long-term malady or raw(a) causes.
‘Drugged, Discarded’
“We believe that [tomorrow] they will say we consider [greyhound racing] should follow prohibited inwards Scotland. Wednesday is pivotal, if they amount come out and ban it, the administration is sledding to experience to move on that. I’m feeling very optimistic.,” Sage chairwoman Gill Docherty told The Times.
If you stripped-down away all the concerns near how they’re kept, that they’re drugged, that they’re discarded at the end, dogs testament stock-still perish on the tracks. You can’t remove that risk, so it needs to go,” she added.
Thornton track owner Saul Brignal said: “Sage keeps banging on almost in that respect being 18,000 injured dogs and 3,000 deaths but we only have virtually 70 dogs left hand inwards racing. We’ve had II serious injuries this single year and i dog unhappily died. But accidents tin happen inwards every sport.”
Death Throes inward US
In the US, greyhound racing is a dying sport inwards to a greater extent slipway than one. In 2018, Florida, one time the epicentre of domestic dog racing inwards America, voted inwards a public referendum to phase it out completely after December 31, 2020.
Arkansas, Occident Virginia, and Iowa are the only when states that stock-still permit commercial-grade greyhound racing and betting. Arkansas and Iowa hold resolved to phase angle come out races at the last of this year.