March for Greyhounds 18th Nov London
March for Greyhounds
London - Saturday, November 18th
Please try to be there!
Greyhound Action has received the following message about the March for Greyhounds, which is being
held in London on Saturday, November 18th:-
"On 16th July 2006 The Sunday Times published an article which revealed the mass killing of
greyhounds. David Smith of Seaham, County Durham was found by an undercover reporter to be culling
greyhounds by shooting them with a bolt-gun for £10 and burying them on his land. It is estimated
Smith killed at least 10,000 racing greyhounds by this method. The full article can be found here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2272307,00.html
"Following this there was there an overwhelming demand for the opportunity to march and show
objection to the continuing abandonment and killing of greyhounds. There was a massive interest in
this on animal rescue forums and from various animal rescues. Considerable efforts have been made to
put this event in place.
"The March for Greyhounds is scheduled to take place on Saturday 18th November. Meeting at Whitehall
Place, 1200. Departing at 1230.
Route: Whitehall Place, Whitehall, Cockspur St, Pallmall East, St James Park, Piccadilly, Hyde Park
Corner, Park Lane, Hyde Park
Arrive Hyde Park approx 1330 for Rally"
The march is being organised by greyhound rescue groups and is on the theme of "Stop the Slaughter".
The idea of this is so that a broad spectrum of groups with concerns about the fate of greyhounds
can take part.
This means that many of the groups on the march will not be opposed to greyhound racing as such and
so will be calling for reforms rather than for an end to the dog racing industry.
We have deep concerns about this march not calling for the total abolition of the greyhound racing
industry and for a total boycott of the industry by the public.
The present government is far more concerned about persecuting the protectors of animals than in
protecting animals from persecution, so we don't hold out much hope of legislation being brought in
to abolish commercial greyhound racing in the near future.
This, however, is not the point.
The best hope for the protection of greyhounds lies in the hands of the general public. The
greyhound racing industry has been in decline for decades, with the closure of dozens of tracks,
because of falling attendances.
Fewer tracks = fewer races = less demand for greyhounds to be produced = fewer greyhounds bred =
fewer put to death.
The key to ending the dog racing industry and putting a stop to the mass-slaughter of greyhounds is
to do our utmost to encourage even more of the public not to attend, or bet on, dog racing.
In order to best achieve this, a clear message needs to be conveyed to the public that commercial
greyhound racing is totally unacceptable and needs to be totally done away with.
Those who limit their call to "better welfare measures" or "independent regulation" may well have
the best interests of the dogs at heart, but they are actually harming our campaign to bring
commercial greyhound racing to an end. This is because many members of the public will interpret
what they are saying as meaning that the dog racing industry is basically OK and just needs a few
reforms, so making it harder for us to persuade people to boycott the industry.
We have little faith that independent regulation will do very much to improve the fate of the dogs,
if this government has anything to do with it. The Blair regime has consistently supported the
persecutors of animals to the extent that vivisection has increased, live-exports have been resumed,
anti-hunting legislation is weak and ill-enforced and draconian laws have been brought in to attempt
to control the activities of animal protection campaigners. Not that we believe any of the major
political parties would behave any differently.
The danger is that independent regulation will make it appear that things are much better, even
though they aren't, so making it much more difficult to reduce and eventually end the racing
industry through public boycott.
With regard to the November 18th march, we are faced with somewhat of a dilemma. Do we totally
boycott it, so that the only message to be heard is the wish-washy better regulation one, or
encourage our supporters to take part with anti greyhound racing banners, placards and leaflets, so
that our message at least gets some sort of a hearing?
We have decided that the second course of action is the better one and we are therefore urging as
many as possible of our supporters to take part, in order to deliver the message loud and clear that
the government should abolish the dog racing industry and that the public should not attend or bet
on greyhound racing.
Please do your best to attend this march. Do bring anti greyhound racing banners and/or placards, if
you can. Do remember though, that the route of the march is two miles long, so don't bring placards
that are heavy to carry. The march organisers are also requesting participants not to bring dogs.
Greyhound Action supporters will be gathering behind our Say No to greyhound racing banner at
Whitehall Place.
Further information about the march (including what you can and cannot bring), together with a map
and poster, can be found on the March for Greyhounds website at http://marchforgreyhounds.co.uk
Tony Peters, Greyhound Action
www.greyhoundaction.org.uk
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