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International News Spring 2002 AUSTRALIA Vincent and Alfie are typical victims of the ruthless side of greyhound racing, according to the Mail. Vincent, whose ears had been cut off before he was buried alive, was rescued by the RSPCA. Vincent, named after Vincent van Gogh, is now a much-loved resident at a New South Wales shelter. Alfie, a 4-year-old former racer, was found wandering in scrub at Pine Rivers, north of Brisbane. He was emaciated and covered with scars. He had either been set on fire or doused with a powerful chemical, which badly burned his belly. Sandra and Ross McKay of Dalby recently adopted Alfie. "I hate to think how the burns happened. His coat was falling out and he was terribly thin," Sandra McKay said. "I will never know how people evolve to be so cruel. You could see in Alfie's eyes he was at the end of his tether and resigned to any treatment he got. He's been through hell but he's still a gentle giant," she said. The Greyhound Racing Authority (GRA), in an effort to clean up the industry's harsh image, is supporting a national Greyhound Adoption Program. GRA spokesman Darren Beavis said more owners appeared to be registering their dogs with the adoption program. Denise Wigney, a veterinarian who helped form the program, said as many as 25,000 greyhounds are born each year throughout the country. "The simple truth is that far more greyhounds are bred than enter the racing industry," she said. According to Wigney, as many as 30 percent never make the grade and are put down. Only two percent of the males will be put out to stud, compared with 10 percent of females kept for breeding. As many as 14,000 dogs could be destroyed each year. Sources: Sunday Mail: Nikki Voss; The Sunday Telegraph: Adrian Bradley EUROPE The demonstrators then walked to the Spanish Embassy. Mireille and Dirk Broeders of Greyhounds in Nood (Belgium), organizers of the unprecedented event, met with embassy officials and delivered a petition containing more than 200,000 signatures protesting the torture and hanging of galgos at the end of hunting season, and the poor treatment of Irish greyhounds import-ed by Spain to race at the Barcelona track. For additional information and photographs of the event, please visit the website of the American-European Greyhound Alliance at www.ameurogreyhoundalliance.org Source: The Gazet van Antwerpen London, England: A shooting outside the Walthamstow greyhound stadium Feb. 19 caused chaos for several hours and delayed the start of the first race until 8:00 p.m. The incident, which reportedly had no connection with the stadium or its patrons, took place at 3:30 p.m. Chris Page, Walthamstow's racing manager, said, "We believe it was a drug- related incident, and there was a close range shooting. A person was taken away by air ambulance, and the police closed the main road outside the stadium for scene-of-the-crime purposes." Source: Racing Post Peterborough, England: Blood sam-ples taken from two greyhounds that died suspiciously after racing on January 26 were found to contain amphetamines. Bill Steele, the vet who attended to one of the dogs, submitted the samples to the Horserace Forensic Laboratory at the request of the dogs' trainer, Mick Willmore, who suspected that someone had drugged his dogs. The lab confirmed the presence of the drug on Feb. 15. Willmore said, "Noel Thompson, security coordinator for the National Greyhound Racing Club, rang me with the news and within ten minutes I was on the phone to the Cambridge police. I want to get to the bottom of this and will not rest until I do so." Thompson said, "As it is a police inquiry now, we will not commence any investigation of our own until they have concluded those inquiries." Three days after his dogs were killed, Willmore gave the following account of their deaths to the Racing Post: "Both dogs finished a distant last in their respective races. Mix and Nix got into a bit of early trouble, but nothing serious. However, she almost came to a standstill going down the back straight, and in the end barely made it across the finish line. My first thought was that she was injured, but I checked her over and there was nothing wrong, so I gave her a drink and put her away in her kennel. "Later that night Belleisle Toby did the same thing. When we got him back to the paddock, he was hyperactive, so I checked him again and gave him a drink. While this was going on, my kennel girl went to get Mix And Nix to load her into the van, but when she opened the door the bitch was lying dead in a pool of blood. She's only been in there about an hour. "We got all dogs loaded, but on the way home Belleisle Toby was shaking his head non-stop, banging it on the side of the van. I was really worried so I called Bill Steele and asked if I could bring the dog in. "When Bill examined him, he said Toby had a very high temperature and an erratic heartbeat. He hosed him down and put him on a drip, but he couldn't save him. Toby died in the early hours of the morning." Mix and Nix's body was delivered to Steele, who took blood samples from both dogs. Steele later confirmed that both dogs had died from malignant hypothermia, which he said could be pharmacologically induced. "Belleisle Toby died in agony, and although this condition can occur naturally it's not very common," Steele said. Source: Racing Post: Paul Brown
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