Do they have some provision for retired dogs?
Dawn.

This is the most sensible comment I have read in this thread, but have to add that I think the conditions that they are kept in during their racing career should be subject to investigation and/or regulation - many rescue greyhounds come in in a terrible condition.

Our dog loves to run - it was after all, what he was breed for and all he really knew for the first few years of his life - at least he only does it for his own fun now.

We have greyhound adoption groups, but there's still
to many hounds to find homes for.
Some adoption groups have their own kennels and some
groups have foster homes until the dog finds a home.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...1675_1,00.html

How can anything that breeds dogs and then when they retire kick them to the kerb be right? For everyowner of a racing greyhound there are several dogs each of which if it runs well will be bred from and then these pups will be raced and if they do well they also will be bred from and so on and so on. Greyhounds retire usually between the ages of three and five, greyhounds as young as one will be retired if they do not run well. Just at bookmakers alone there are usually four to six greyhound race meetings a day and there of course is untelevised meetings going on everyday also. 6 dogs a race, between8-14 races a meeting, more than four meetings a day makes for a hell of a lot of dogs that will be needing homes in the near future when they retire. Only the really good racers will have good homes (if you can call it that) they will be kept by the owner to breed and breed and breed and breed, until the dog is on its last legs.

Because of their diet as a racing dog they will have terrible teeth which will cost a new owner a lot to put right. They have a tendancy to chase and will not be able to be rehomed with small animals, though not many owners (if doing the rehoming themselves) will tell the prospective owner this and then they wonder why Rover ate fluffy.

There are not enough rescues to take the dogs needing homes and so some owners kill their dogs themselves, poison, shooting and I have even heard of them being beaten to death.

Thats not to mention the things that actually go on with the dogs whilst they are racing, drugs, kicking a male dog in the balls, inflicting pain in oh so many different ways and contrary to polular belief they do things like this so the dog loses the race by miles and then they have the dog down graded, giving the owner a better chance of winning the next race and a better price.

I do know some greyhound owners who love their dogs and do the best by them but sadly it is not the case for them all.

A DOG IS FOR LIFE NOT JUST FOR RACING!

My god, this is terrible! We went there looking for a a female greyhound companion for Oscar, our first rescue greyhound not so long ago - no wonder they didn't have any! The place 'looks' quite good as animal rescue centres go - hope the 'people' who run this place come back as greyhounds in their next life!!

http://www.limerickanimalwelfare.com/law/greyhounds.htm

http://www.limerickanimalwelfare.com/law/index.htm

personally i dont agree with it and i think it should be stopped but some people enjoy i have a friend who used to train greyhounds for the track each to their own i suppose

its a very sad life for a racing gray hound i rescued a very handsom boy black and white ex racing he had injured his paw and was going to be killed i took and had to have one of his toes removed so he only has 3 toes to his front leg it cost me nearly £600 buthe was worth every penny he is so gentle and very good with all my other dogs small and big it just sad to see he was one of the lucky ones but so may meet a dreadful end