A Call For Help
On 18 November 2006 I, along with hundreds of other Greyhound lovers marched through central London with banners and posters, and leaflets which we gave to everyone we passed along the way.
We were trying to make the general public aware of what you and I already know about the atrocities within the Greyhound racing industry.
Our march was very successful and now many more people know what is happening every day to beautiful Greyhounds.
The paragraph below is written by Tony Peters of Greyhound Action.
"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 entirely unacceptable and needs to be totally done away with.
" This conveys very clearly what needs to be done now, and I am writing to ask you, my friends, and everyone who cares about Greyhounds to help us.
Together we can and we must persuade people not to attend Greyhound races, and not to bet on them at a bookmakers shop or anywhere else.
If we can do that then Greyhound racing will simply die out through lack of support and the need for a ban will no longer exist.
The way to do this is through education.
Do you remember what you felt like when you first discovered what was going on behind the seemingly respectable facade of Greyhound racing? How horrified you were to think about what was happening right now to these lovely dogs? Well you now need to make others aware also.
If you want leaflets to give out Tony will be happy to supply them for you, and you can print anything you like from my website that you think will help.
Here is another sentence by Tony Peters.
"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 British government has broken every promise it has made to the animal rights movement and as Tony says above has even made it harder for us by introducing laws to control our activities still further.
However, we don't need them anymore.
Greyhound racing is in such decline that we can succeed on our own from here on.
Think of it this way.
If a large and powerful retail outlet, turning over a billion pounds each year were suddenly to lose all its customers for some reason, that company would cease to exist.
Within a very short time it would be completely forgotten as its customers find other outlets, and that would be the end of them.
This is brought about of course by the simplest of laws of economics, supply and demand.
If this can happen to a powerful commercial company it can easily happen to Greyhound exploiters.
So, the answer lies with us my friends, you and I.
Between us we can end this cruel industry through the power of supply and demand.
We must remove the demand for Greyhound racing by making EVERYONE WE KNOW aware of what we already know about the suffering and death that is an inherent part of it.
There is of course one very important difference between the retail company in my analogy and the racing industry, and that is that we are not concerned with economic and commercial strategy but the lives and suffering of the gentlest, most loving dogs in the world, beautiful Greyhounds.
Please let us not fail them.
We were trying to make the general public aware of what you and I already know about the atrocities within the Greyhound racing industry.
Our march was very successful and now many more people know what is happening every day to beautiful Greyhounds.
The paragraph below is written by Tony Peters of Greyhound Action.
"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 entirely unacceptable and needs to be totally done away with.
" This conveys very clearly what needs to be done now, and I am writing to ask you, my friends, and everyone who cares about Greyhounds to help us.
Together we can and we must persuade people not to attend Greyhound races, and not to bet on them at a bookmakers shop or anywhere else.
If we can do that then Greyhound racing will simply die out through lack of support and the need for a ban will no longer exist.
The way to do this is through education.
Do you remember what you felt like when you first discovered what was going on behind the seemingly respectable facade of Greyhound racing? How horrified you were to think about what was happening right now to these lovely dogs? Well you now need to make others aware also.
If you want leaflets to give out Tony will be happy to supply them for you, and you can print anything you like from my website that you think will help.
Here is another sentence by Tony Peters.
"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 British government has broken every promise it has made to the animal rights movement and as Tony says above has even made it harder for us by introducing laws to control our activities still further.
However, we don't need them anymore.
Greyhound racing is in such decline that we can succeed on our own from here on.
Think of it this way.
If a large and powerful retail outlet, turning over a billion pounds each year were suddenly to lose all its customers for some reason, that company would cease to exist.
Within a very short time it would be completely forgotten as its customers find other outlets, and that would be the end of them.
This is brought about of course by the simplest of laws of economics, supply and demand.
If this can happen to a powerful commercial company it can easily happen to Greyhound exploiters.
So, the answer lies with us my friends, you and I.
Between us we can end this cruel industry through the power of supply and demand.
We must remove the demand for Greyhound racing by making EVERYONE WE KNOW aware of what we already know about the suffering and death that is an inherent part of it.
There is of course one very important difference between the retail company in my analogy and the racing industry, and that is that we are not concerned with economic and commercial strategy but the lives and suffering of the gentlest, most loving dogs in the world, beautiful Greyhounds.
Please let us not fail them.
