16 Oct 2024
Defra minister says “if action is needed, it will be proportionate and sensible”, but adds that sport is making “considerable efforts” to address issues.
Allister Webb
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Image © purdue1988 / Adobe Stock
The UK Government has hinted it would be prepared to act on welfare issues in greyhound racing, but resisted fresh political calls for a ban.
Sporting officials have dismissed the idea as “neither proportionate nor sensible”, despite the ongoing veterinary debate about the role of animals in competition.
Last month, in a move it claims is the first of its kind politically, Green Party members backed a motion calling for an immediate ban on the discipline during their annual conference in Manchester.
The vote was highlighted by Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay during a Westminster Hall debate on 9 October, as he urged ministers to develop plans “for ending cruelty to animals in so-called sport”.
In response, Defra minister Daniel Zeichner said: “Clearly there are issues around greyhound racing and welfare.
“I have to tell him those involved in that sport are making considerable efforts to address those issues, but we are monitoring it carefully and will make sure that, if action is needed, it will be proportionate and sensible.”
The exchange took place as MPs marked 200 years since the formation of the RSPCA, which is one of the organisations that is calling for greyhound racing to be outlawed.
Although its future has been debated through recent public consultations in both Scotland and Wales, the previous Conservative administration in Westminster rejected calls for a change in the law.
A spokesperson for the sport’s governing body, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, welcomed what it saw as Mr Zeichner’s “supportive” remarks.
She added: “We also support his view that any action should be proportionate and sensible – unlike that of some animal welfare charities, such as the RSPCA, and the Green Party, whose calls for a ban are neither proportionate nor sensible.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Government to ensure our sport, which makes an important social and economic contribution to communities across the country, continues to uphold the very highest standards of welfare.”
But Mr Ramsay argued the idea of a ban, which is backed by several other welfare groups alongside the RSPCA, as well as some within the veterinary sector, also enjoys majority public support.
In comments issued after the conference vote, he said: “Preventing greyhounds from being raced for the benefit of the betting industry and commercial gain would bring an end to the unnecessary deaths and suffering of these dogs.”
Concerns were also raised during the debate about welfare issues in horse racing, which were most recently highlighted following the deaths of four horses during a single fixture at Newton Abbot in June.
Mr Ramsay said: “The horse racing industry needs to show how it will stop deaths of horses on racetracks.”
However, speaking at last month’s BEVA Congress in Liverpool, British Horseracing Authority head of equine regulation Sally Taylor said the present system of pre-race checks on runners was improving the sport by identifying health conditions that should not be present on tracks at all.
She added: “We are confident that what we are doing is having an effect on the social licence.”
The BVA began a long-awaited review of its policy on the use of animals in sport in the summer, after a survey of its members last year indicated a majority were in favour of tighter regulations.
But the new BEVA president, Bruce Bladon, warned dedicated equine practice was “unlikely to survive” without disciplines that involve the use of horses being allowed to continue.
