Today my thoughts are with the thousands of greyhounds who haven’t been rescued yet and may never be rescued due to the dangers of greyhound racing and rescue wait lists that span months or years. 

Why do the words ‘rescued not retired’ matter?

Retired is the racing’s industry’s word. It implies that there is a choice – people choose to retire – thus softening and painting the industry in a better light. 

Greyhounds don’t have a choice. They don’t have the ability to say no and even if they did, they would still be forced into start boxes or be ‘initial wastage’ (that’s a less glamorous industry term). 

Anyone who can appreciate risk and consequence would not choose a career in which 320 professionals were killed and 11,600 were injured in a single country in a single year. Dogs cannot appreciate risk and consequence, therefore arguments such as ‘they love to run’ don’t hold any weight. As their guardians it’s up to us to keep them safe and racing them is incompatible with this.

That’s why ‘rescued not retired’ matters. Retired is an industry attempt to greenwash and sanction the abuse, injury and killing of thousands of greyhounds.