The kennel facility was solid with old faeces and urine. Many of the kennels contained the corpses of deceased dogs.
THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS IMAGES SOME READERS MAY FIND UPSETTING
A greyhound trainer with 17 years experience has been jailed for 36 weeks and banned for keeping animals for life following her shocking mistreatment of 38 greyhounds.
Rebecca Perkins’ kennel facility in East Yorkshire was visited by the RSPCA following an inspection by a Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) representative in September 2022. In a witness statement, Daniel Richardson (an RSPCA officer who attended the site) said:
As we walked down the first row, we noticed nearly all of the pens had greyhounds in, several of which were deceased. There were living dogs in the kennels with the deceased dogs.
The majority of the dogs were very skinny and several were unable to stand. I noticed the dogs were in very poor body condition, I noticed fur loss and sores on many of the dogs. One in particular had a nasty open wound on its front leg. I noticed several of the kennels containing deceased dogs that were in different stages of decay.
The dogs that remained alive were signed over to the RSPCA by Perkins. Although most of them are now on track to recovery and rehoming, sadly some of them could not be saved despite urgent intervention by a vet.
Unfortunately this incident is just the latest in a string of high-profile tragedies that result from the commercial greyhound racing industry. It demonstrates once again how the model of commercial greyhound racing is incapable of providing a sufficient level of protection to the animals that it profits from.
Many questions have been raised by industry commentators, including why Perkins’ kennels were not inspected by GBGB sooner, and why other trainers had been sending dogs to Perkins’ kennels to be rehomed.
The Valley Greyhound Stadium in Ystrad Mynach is applying to become a licensed greyhound track under GBGB. Greyhound Rescue Wales is firmly opposed to this as we know the struggles that racing greyhounds in Wales already face. Licensing under GBGB would see an increase to the scale of these struggles due to the intensification in racing.
We know from our direct experience of the Last Hope tragedy that Wales is not immune to the severe and criminal mistreatment of greyhounds. Incidents like these serve as a warning and send a clear message that enough is enough – it is time to end greyhound racing in Wales for good.
Sources:
Text: TheStar.co.uk, BBC News
Images: RSPCA