The way forward for a Lanarkshire canine racing monitor stays murky as campaigners towards the game spoke on the Scottish Parliament final week.
The Scottish Parliament's Rural Affairs, Islands and Pure Setting Committee has been requested by campaigners from Scotland Towards Greyhound Exploitation (Sage) to name for an entire ban on the game.
That will see a closure of Shawfield Stadium in Rutherglen, which is the one remaining licenced monitor in Scotland.
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Earlier this 12 months we instructed how 15 canines had died on the monitor in only a three 12 months span, from 2017 to 2020, whereas 197 accidents occurred in the identical interval.
Stats additionally revealed numerous canines had been discovered with medicine of their system throughout 2018 and 2019 - together with 5 animals with cocaine.
Talking on the committee to MSPs, Gill Docherty of SAGE mentioned: "Basically, we can't ignore the inherent dangers of greyhound racing itself. These dangers are current whether or not the monitor is regulated or unregulated.
"They can't be mitigated towards with welfare measures or cleverly named initiatives.
"It's a undeniable fact that making six canines race at pace in extra of 40mph counter clockwise spherical an oval monitor ends in a excessive fee of collisions and accidents, with the primary finish being infamous for inflicting probably the most accidents."
The marketing campaign group, who usually protested outdoors Shawfield when races had been held there, additionally worry that the animals may undergo psychological trauma from the races.
Scottish Greens MSP, Mark Ruskell has now backed the petition by SAGE to cease the game, which obtained 130,159 signatures.
He acknowledged: "I genuinely assume that is an business that's actually past reform.
"We're speaking about canines going round a monitor at 40mph, the inherent dangers by way of collision between canines, between the canines and the monitor infrastructure.
"It raises not simply critical welfare questions on how we deal with and take care of the accidents that come up from greyhound racing but additionally main moral concerns about why we put canines in that scenario within the first place, realizing full effectively they are going to have a significant threat of damage or loss of life."
Nonetheless, Mark Hen, chief government of GBGB, argued that welfare was "paramount" in licensed greyhound racing.
He mentioned: "What is usually neglected by those that want to see racing banned is that the safety racing greyhound receives goes far past what's afforded to home canines within the UK.
"As regulator, we carefully monitor the welfare of all GBGB registered greyhounds and have a zero-tolerance strategy to any mistreatment of greyhounds inside our sport.
"Every greyhound racing at one among our tracks is seen by a vet each earlier than and after racing and their trainers' kennels are usually inspected by vets, our stipendiary stewards and unbiased auditors to make sure they adjust to out excessive welfare requirements."
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The GBGB insist they've strict anti-doping insurance policies and say all cases are reported to the suitable authorities and will additionally end in a lifetime ban for trainers.
Races at Shawfield haven't resumed for the reason that coronavirus pandemic.
Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey, who beforehand met with the house owners of Shawfield and GBGB representatives, instructed Lanarkshire Reside she nonetheless has considerations concerning the stadium internet hosting the game.
She acknowledged: "Having had important considerations about greyhound racing in Rutherglen, I met with each the administration of Shawfield and the Greyhound Board of Nice Britain a few years in the past to listen to what they had been doing to uphold the welfare of the animals.
"As I’ve mentioned publicly earlier than, I used to be unhappy with their responses and I nonetheless stay involved concerning the security of racing greyhounds.
"’I've famous with curiosity the looks of Scotland Towards Greyhound Exploitation earlier than the Rural Affairs Committee, and I welcome the steps the Committee are taking to research this matter additional."
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