100,000 Greyhound Dogs Exterminated Every Year!

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100,000 Greyhound Dogs Exterminated Every Year!

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Each and every year more than 100,000 Greyhound dogs are killed worldwide! No other dog breed in the world has had to endure such decimation annually and the astonishing reason why this sweet-mannered, lovable dog is killed so extensively boils down to two words: Dog Racing! What makes this annual massacre even more shocking is the fact that the Greyhound was once held in such high esteem that it was a crime, punishable by death, to kill a Greyhound dog (King Canute's reign)…my how times have changed!   

The Greyhound is the oldest recognizable dog breed in the world spanning back 6,000 years. This is the one dog breed that over time has been most favored by nobility and royalty, and indeed in 1014 in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />England, a law was enacted forbidding commoners to own such a fine beast. Tutankhamen owned them, so did Queen Hatshepsut, not to mention the historical femme fatale Queen Cleopatra VII (she who ensnared Mark Anthony). In fact the Greyhound happens to be the one and only dog breed ever mentioned by name in the Bible (King James Version).

So how could so exalted a dog find itself in its current tragic circumstances? The Greyhound falls under the category of what is known as a Sighthound, dogs that are typically slender, built for speed and track their prey by sight as opposed to scent. In earlier times such dogs were used to hunt food, but with the advent of agricultural food production and the domestication of livestock species, this function of the Sighthounds quickly became obsolete. Of course hare coursing (an old sport extending back to before the time of the Romans) was still a favored pastime of the gentry but as the acreage of the great forests dwindled so did the sport!

But man, ever the crafty ape, soon came up with a means to circumvent the dwindling real estate resources required to fully exploit the talents of the Greyhound dog. In 1876 near London, the first Greyhound race incorporating artificial bait (fake hare) occurred. The race was conducted along a straight track as opposed to today's oval tracks but failed to catch on. It wasn't until 1926 in Manchester, when the first race that ever took place on an oval track happened then the sport really took off!

Today Greyhound dog racing is thankfully on the decline, much in part due to the work of animal rights activists who've brought increasing public attention to the cruelty endured by the dogs and other animals involved in this industry. In Spain alone it is estimated that 50,000 Greyhounds are killed. Death by hanging appears to be the preferred method of execution (many of the dogs are dispatched by their owners). This method of dispatching unwanted Greyhounds has been dubbed "The Typewriter Death" due to the noise the struggling dog's hind legs make against the ground; it is reminiscent of the clicking sound of a typewriter.

In the US where animal rights laws are more stringent the numbers and killings are not quite so horrific but it is still estimated that anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 dogs are destroyed each year; which begs the question…why so many planned deaths? Greyhound dogs are killed in droves because every year far more dogs are bred than can be incorporated in the dog racing industry. Dogs that typically don't make the cut, or are injured or too old to race anymore (but nowhere near the-tail end of their life expectancy) are the ones that are destroyed. In the United States a lot of these dogs first make it to animal rescues or shelters, but such places are already overflowing with unwanted Greyhound dogs, most of them barely 2 years old! Shelters can only house so many dogs for so long on a limited budget.

Ever mindful of squeezing the very last buck out of their unwanted Greyhounds, several breeders now ship those unwanted dogs over to China where they are exposed to even more horrendous conditions than they were in before. And some of them surely end up on the dinner menu! Another lucrative avenue via which Greyhound breeders can further exploit surplus dogs is by selling them to research labs. The Greyhound's superb physiology makes it a prime lab candidate for cardiovascular research.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of this tragic situation is that the Greyhound is such an adorable dog! If you're are ever considering adopting a dog take a minute to check out the thousands of Greyhound dogs in Rescues and Shelters awaiting a loving new family!

For more about Greyhounds click link below:

Greyhound Dog