It’s national rescue dog day in Australia
So here’s why greyhounds are rescued and not retired and why these terms matter.
“Retired” greyhound 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 128 professionals were killed and 11,400 were injured in a single country in a single year and where there is a study (that literally comes from the racing industry) demonstrating the inherent danger of racing comes from dogs grouping together.
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.