Revealed: the new dog killers

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The Sunday Times-Britain

By Daniel Foggo

AN ANIMAL sanctuary where healthy greyhounds have been quietly killed for up to 20 years has been uncovered by The Sunday Times.
The sanctuary in the northwest of England, which boasts that it finds “secure futures” for unwanted dogs and pets, is the second slaughterhouse found to have been killing greyhounds for dozens of trainers and racing owners.



The disclosure will increase pressure on the government to change the law to safeguard the welfare of the 12,000 greyhounds that go “missing” each year after retiring from racing.

Two months ago The Sunday Times shook the greyhound industry and provoked a government inquiry by revealing the scandal of a man in the northeast of England who was running a “canine killing fields” in his garden where 10,000 dogs had been buried.

The revelation forced a parliamentary group of MPs, peers and animal welfare organisations to consider specific laws to prevent the slaughter of greyhounds once they are too old to race, typically at around three or four years of age.

It will report next month on whether to make the measures part of the government’s new animal welfare bill.

In July, with the exposure of the slaughter of unwanted healthy greyhounds by a builders’ merchant in Seaham, Co Durham, senior figures in the industry claimed it was an isolated case. Today’s investigation, however, revealing how an animal sanctuary in Greater Manchester is used as cover for slaughtering greyhounds, will fuel suspicions that the practice is endemic.

One trainer, whose greyhounds have competed on top tracks, said: “They [the sanctuary] have put down thousands there.

“Nearly everybody uses it. I have been in dog racing for 20 years and that’s where they’ve always gone. They must get 10 or 20 greyhounds a week there, minimum.”

By the time they reach the age of four most racing dogs are considered too slow, even though they may live for another 10 or 12 years.

Last week a reporter posing as a trainer who wanted two healthy dogs killed, visited Leigh Animal Sanctuary, between Wigan and Manchester. Without questioning why they should be destroyed, an employee called David accepted £70 in cash to kill two young greyhounds.

David gave the “trainer” a receipt. The blue slip included the “trainer’s” name and address and telephone number, but no details about the dogs except that they were greyhounds.

David pencilled in the words “For PTS” (put to sleep) on the line headed “reason for rehoming”. When asked if he would lie to the “trainer’s” wife if she called by, telling her that the dogs had been rehomed, David agreed he would.

Three greyhound trainers have given interviews, on condition of anonymity, stating that the sanctuary has been the killing ground of choice for the industry in the northwest for many years.

All said that it came down to a matter of cost, with the sanctuary undercutting vets’ prices. One said: “It’s £35 at Leigh Animal Sanctuary but if the vet put them down at the track it’s £65. Every track uses it, they come from all over . . .”

Three former employees at the kennels said that greyhounds were not considered easy to sell and were therefore not “money makers”. They said the dogs were killed in Block 8 — a stuffy boxroom in the sanctuary — with lethal injections to the heart, but it is claimed without veterinary supervision.

“It stinks of dead dogs in there,” said Jane, one of the former employees. “It’s a sickening smell.”

While killing dogs humanely, such as with lethal injections, is not illegal, trainers belonging to the National Greyhound Racing Club are required to put dogs down only as a last resort and then only under the supervision of a vet.

Last week two trainers and a racecourse assistant manager were banned for life from attending any tracks in Britain following The Sunday Times’s investigation into the Seaham killing fields.