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Jul. 16th, 2006 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mad_andyKilling Field of the dog racing industry
DAVID SMITH met the owners of the two greyhounds at his garden gate and pocketed £10 from each as he took hold of the makeshift leads. With his chained-up rottweilers looking on, the bearded and bespectacled Smith led the lithe racing dogs — one a fawn- coloured brindle and the other black with white markings — across his plot and into a breeze-block shed.
The animals appeared sprightly and alert as if they hoped they might soon be allowed off the lead for a run. But seconds later two sharp reports rang out. They had been killed.
Anyone who had worked in an abattoir would have recognised the sounds as the discharging of a bolt gun, a weapon that fires a metal bar with enough force to smash the toughest skull.
...
It was a scene that has been repeated regularly in this secluded corner of the seaside town of Seaham, in Co Durham — a slaughter business that can be exposed for the first time today after a Sunday Times investigation.
Smith’s unofficial abattoir and graveyard have quietly serviced the greyhound racing industry in the north of Britain for about 15 years. Calculations by this newspaper suggest that over that period at least 10,000 dogs have been killed and buried in the plot at the back of his house. Before Smith, his father, now 81, provided a similar service.
According to a dog track insider, the trade has been a secret that greyhound trainers and owners have been keen to keep. “Only doing two dogs a day is a bad day for him. It is not unheard of for him to do around 40 a day and if anyone ever digs up that garden it will be like the killing fields,” we were told. “He has made a mint out of it".
And people wonder why I became so anti dog racing. Bah. If you have any doubts at all about the vileness of this industry, then I would suggest you go and read the article.
DAVID SMITH met the owners of the two greyhounds at his garden gate and pocketed £10 from each as he took hold of the makeshift leads. With his chained-up rottweilers looking on, the bearded and bespectacled Smith led the lithe racing dogs — one a fawn- coloured brindle and the other black with white markings — across his plot and into a breeze-block shed.
The animals appeared sprightly and alert as if they hoped they might soon be allowed off the lead for a run. But seconds later two sharp reports rang out. They had been killed.
Anyone who had worked in an abattoir would have recognised the sounds as the discharging of a bolt gun, a weapon that fires a metal bar with enough force to smash the toughest skull.
...
It was a scene that has been repeated regularly in this secluded corner of the seaside town of Seaham, in Co Durham — a slaughter business that can be exposed for the first time today after a Sunday Times investigation.
Smith’s unofficial abattoir and graveyard have quietly serviced the greyhound racing industry in the north of Britain for about 15 years. Calculations by this newspaper suggest that over that period at least 10,000 dogs have been killed and buried in the plot at the back of his house. Before Smith, his father, now 81, provided a similar service.
According to a dog track insider, the trade has been a secret that greyhound trainers and owners have been keen to keep. “Only doing two dogs a day is a bad day for him. It is not unheard of for him to do around 40 a day and if anyone ever digs up that garden it will be like the killing fields,” we were told. “He has made a mint out of it".
And people wonder why I became so anti dog racing. Bah. If you have any doubts at all about the vileness of this industry, then I would suggest you go and read the article.
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Date: 2006-07-16 02:11 pm (UTC)*hugggleclings*
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Date: 2006-07-16 02:25 pm (UTC)Fuck, the sheer betrayal of such an act. It makes me sick and no, I never wondered why you're against dog racing. My sister had a rescued grey hound. She was a wonderful dog, precisely what my sister was looking for in a pet. Lived to be something like sixteen or seventeen years old, and eventually had to be put down because her body just gave out. Yes, people killed her in the end, but it wasn't like this. It wasn't until she lived as full a life as she could and when it happened, it happened peacefully. Indeed, it was likely a great relief for her. To think, this could have happened to her when she was still in her prime....
God, I hate people.
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Date: 2006-07-16 02:28 pm (UTC)[goes off to be sick in a corner]
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Date: 2006-07-16 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-16 05:41 pm (UTC)But tell me, this almost outright accusation against the RSPCA, that they somehow quietly condone this, is it true in your opinion? And will this expose help in any way, or am I being too optomistic about the basic goodness of people?
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Date: 2006-07-16 07:48 pm (UTC)*Growl*
I have dealt with them far too often to trust them.
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Date: 2006-07-17 11:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 03:55 pm (UTC)Because I was at work i couldn't deck him, unfortunately.
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Date: 2006-07-17 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 08:26 pm (UTC)Which would have got me a p45, but hey. ;)