I jsut received this :
Please forward widely
Join SDGA on the March for Greyhounds and 'Say No to Greyhound Racing'
Dear Greyhound Buddy
South Devon Greyhound Action will be supporting the greyhound march in London on the 18th November and we are appealing to all our supporters in Devon and across the UK and Ireland to please attend this very important event. PLEASE SEE EMAIL BELOW FROM GREYHOUND ACTION HEAD OFFICE.
Please could all SDGA supporters who are planning to attend this event and have their own transport, let us know asap if you would have room in your vehicle and be willing to offer transport to supporters who would like to attend but have no transport of their own. We also need to know those of you who want to attend the march but have no transport so we can put you in touch with others who will be attending the march. You can contact us on 07812 742232 or email southdevonga@yahoo.co.uk. Thankyou.
We are urging all animal rights campaigners and activists to stand with us to support Greyhound Action's complete opposition to commercial greyhound racing and not welfare and better regulations for the greyhounds.
Those of us who are proud to be involved in the animal rights movement have only one opinion and we are not divided on this. Those people who are welfarists are sending a message to the government and the general public that greyhound racing is ok provided it is properly regulated. With better regulation, greyhounds would still be overbred, serious injuries on the tracks would still be sustained and there are simply not enough homes for the greyhounds given that it is estimated that 8-10,000 ordinary dogs are put to sleep every year due to lack of kennel space and homes for them. It is naive to think that the industry would pay for the longevity of a greyhound's entire life as this would seriously eat into their profits. Let us also not forget the live transportation of ex-racing greyhounds to Spain where their fate is inevitable. Spain has very few laws regarding animal welfare and these dogs are not only abused and exploited but brutally murdered when no longer needed. What steps have the government taken on this appalling crime? None!! Also we believe no animal should be used for human entertainment and this alone should be enough to deter any animal lover from supporting commercial greyhound racing.
We at SDGA are proud to stand apart from those welfarists as we are the ones that truly care for the greyhounds plight. If you wish to support Greyhound Action then proudly stand beneath the banner at the march that says 'Say no to greyhound racing'. There is no compromise. It is important that we get as many Greyhound Action supporters as possible to this event to publically declare amongst the welfarists at the march, that we will tolerate nothing short of a ban.
We do not like division in the ranks but cannot sell our souls to the industry and welfarists.
Please do all you can to attend this vital march for the greyhounds.
Best wishes
SDGA team
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” (Edmund Burke)
March for Greyhounds
London - Saturday, November 18th
Please try to be there!
Greyhound Action has received the following message about the March for Greyhounds, which is being held in London on Saturday, November 18th:-
On 16th July 2006 The Sunday Times published an article which revealed the mass killing of greyhounds. David Smith of Seaham, County Durham was found by an undercover reporter to be culling greyhounds by shooting them with a bolt-gun for £10 and burying them on his land. It is estimated Smith killed at least 10,000 racing greyhounds by this method. The full article can be found here:
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2272307,00.html
Following this there was there an overwhelming demand for the opportunity to march and show objection to the continuing abandonment and killing of greyhounds. There was a massive interest in this on animal rescue forums and from various animal rescues. Considerable efforts have been made to put this event in place.
The March for Greyhounds is scheduled to take place on Saturday 18th November. Meeting at Whitehall Place, 1200. Departing at 1230.
Route: Whitehall Place, Whitehall, Cockspur St, Pallmall East , St James Park , Piccadilly , Hyde Park Corner, Park Lane , Hyde Park
Arrive Hyde Park approx 1330 for Rally
The march is being organised by greyhound rescue groups and is on the theme of "Stop the Slaughter". The idea of this is so that a broad spectrum of groups with concerns about the fate of greyhounds can take part.
This means that many of the groups on the march will not be opposed to greyhound racing as such and so will be calling for reforms rather than for an end to the dog racing industry.
We have deep concerns about this march not calling for the total abolition of the greyhound racing industry and for a total boycott of the industry by the public.
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 totally unacceptable and needs to be totally done away with.
Those who limit their call to "better welfare measures" or "independent regulation" may well have the best interests of the dogs at heart, but they are actually harming our campaign to bring commercial greyhound racing to an end. This is because many members of the public will interpret what they are saying as meaning that the dog racing industry is basically OK and just needs a few reforms, so making it harder for us to persuade people to boycott the industry.
We have little faith that independent regulation will do very much to improve the fate of the dogs, if this government has anything to do with it. 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 danger is that independent regulation will make it appear that things are much better, even though they aren't, so making it much more difficult to reduce and eventually end the racing industry through public boycott.
With regard to the November 18th march, we are faced with somewhat of a dilemma. Do we totally boycott it, so that the only message to be heard is the wish-washy better regulation one, or encourage our supporters to take part with anti greyhound racing banners, placards and leaflets, so that our message at least gets some sort of a hearing?
We have decided that the second course of action is the better one and we are therefore urging as many as possible of our supporters to take part, in order to deliver the message loud and clear that the government should abolish the dog racing industry and that the public should not attend or bet on greyhound racing.
Please do your best to attend this march. Do bring anti greyhound racing banners and/or placards, if you can. Do remember though, that the route of the march is two miles long, so don't bring placards that are heavy to carry. The march organisers are also requesting participants not to bring dogs.
Greyhound Action supporters will be gathering behind our Say No to greyhound racing banner at Whitehall Place.
Further information about the march (including what you can and cannot bring), together with a map and poster, can be found on the March for Greyhounds website at
marchforgreyhounds.co.uk Please feel free to forward/crosspost/circulate this message.
Tony Peters, Greyhound Action
www.greyhoundaction.org.uk