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Jul. 16th, 2006
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Jul. 16th, 2006 03:02 pmKilling 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.
More memeage!
Jul. 16th, 2006 09:03 pmTagged by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
m_jules, the Five Lies meme:
Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog entry with five complete lies about yourself. That is, five things about you that are completely not true. Not even slightly. Then tag up to five people you want to turn into compulsive liars too.
1: I love boy bands and fluffy pop music. Can't get through my day without a bit of Plastic Pop.
2: I am a vegetarian.
3: I have never written a word in my life. Writing? Poo!
4: I keep my house neat and tidy and spick and span. You can eat your dinner from my living room floor.
5: I spend very little time online.
If that little lot don't make people who know me laugh so hard they require clean underwear I'll be amazed.
I tag...
arabwel, evaine, xeviscerax, hector_rashbaum, duffnstuff
m_jules, the Five Lies meme:Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog entry with five complete lies about yourself. That is, five things about you that are completely not true. Not even slightly. Then tag up to five people you want to turn into compulsive liars too.
1: I love boy bands and fluffy pop music. Can't get through my day without a bit of Plastic Pop.
2: I am a vegetarian.
3: I have never written a word in my life. Writing? Poo!
4: I keep my house neat and tidy and spick and span. You can eat your dinner from my living room floor.
5: I spend very little time online.
If that little lot don't make people who know me laugh so hard they require clean underwear I'll be amazed.
I tag...
arabwel, evaine, xeviscerax, hector_rashbaum, duffnstuff