Greyhound breeder offers slow dogs to be killed for research

[Swiftwind]

Greyhound breeder offers slow dogs to be killed for research


Author: Daniel Foggo
Publisher: The Sunday Times
Date: 11 May 2008
Original Article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3908388.ece


The largest breeder of greyhounds in Britain is offering to sell healthy young dogs to be killed and dissected for research, an investigation has found.

Charles Pickering told an undercover reporter that his breeding programme continually throws up dozens of “fit and healthy” dogs that are “just a bit too slow for the tracks” and therefore a financial burden to him.

Pickering, who offered to sell them for £30 each, said he was helping to supply dogs to the animal teaching hospital at Liverpool University.

He provides yearling greyhounds to Richard Fielding, a greyhound trainer, who gives his older dogs for free to university veterinary staff, who put them to sleep and remove organs for teaching and research.

Pickering said he wanted to keep his dealings “nice and confidential” because it was “extremely sensitive”. The disclosure throws fresh light on the way in which the greyhound racing industry treats both retired dogs and those that fail to make the grade.

The Sunday Times disclosed in March that the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) was buying canine body parts from John O’Connor, a vet whose clinic was willing to euthanase healthy greyhounds, no questions asked.

An undercover reporter approached Pickering after hearing he was quietly sending young dogs to be put down at Liverpool University.

Pickering, a former pig farmer, breeds about 200 racing dogs a year at his Zigzag Kennels. Its website says: “We make the welfare of all our stock our highest priority.”

The reporter told Pickering that he was from another university and was interested in procuring surplus dogs for research. Pickering, 56, who is based at Dunholme in Lincolnshire, said: “We look to sell them [for racing] for a minimum of £200-£300 at 12 weeks [old].

“When they get to a year old we are hoping that we can get between £800 and £20,000 for the very fastest. But, of course, along the way we get some that aren’t quite suitable. If it’s in the interest of someone for scientific purposes or study purposes, well that’s a good thing. It’s better than just being put down and disappearing.”

Asked which of his dogs were not “suitable” for racing, he said: “We’ve got ones that simply won’t chase, they are absolutely healthy, fit as you could want, but just choose not to chase the artificial hare or are just a little bit too slow for the tracks. Or the ones that turn and fight.”

Pickering said he had been supplying up to 30 dogs a year to Liverpool University but “we could do more if required”. He later said that the dogs sent to Liverpool had either “finished racing or they are the ones that don’t make the grade” and were taken there by Fielding, who is accredited by the National Greyhound Racing Club, the sport’s governing body.

Pickering said that he could supply as many dogs as required at £30 each and could even breed them specifically to be killed. “When we are breeding, the ones that only reach the minimum standard for what we want, if we get too many of those it becomes a complication because we have to look for pet homes and all that sort of thing,” he said.

“I do give as many away for pets as we can, but these young ones, they are not used to the house environment. If they can have a use and help someone somewhere, and it gets me a tiny bit of money back, that’s all the better for me.”

Fielding, who is based in Lancashire told the reporter he had four “very healthy” dogs which he was happy to have taken away and killed immediately.

“I got shot of 10 old ones last year. Liverpool is a godsend in that respect because they are used for a good purpose.” He did not charge the university for them.

When contacted by the Sunday Times he denied taking any of Pickering’s dogs to the university and insisted the only greyhounds he took there were old and not rehomeable.

Pickering later denied ever having sent dogs for research.

Dr Eithne Comerford, who works at the university’s hospital and had arranged to take greyhounds from Fielding, told the undercover reporter that it was “not something we’re particularly mad about . . . we’re all vets”. She stressed that the dogs were “euthanased properly” and used for “multiple projects”. She said they were not paid for and the RVC scandal had caused “huge havoc”.

A spokeswoman for Liverpool University defended its activities. “Our approach to veterinary research is of the highest ethical standard. We only carry out research on tissues of dogs and cats that have died or been euthanased and with the full consent of the animal’s owner.”

[Dangels]

Oh wow, that is so very sad.... one would think that at some point, people would make a stand, and try to get that type of thing made totally illegal.