HOVE EVIDENCE
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On the 14th April 2019, CHDT went undercover to film the greyhound auction that took place at the Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium in East Sussex, UK, where in excess of 40 dogs were put up for sale. After 12+ hours on the road, the dogs arrived distressed and exhausted, having travelled through the night from Ireland, to then be forced into traps and made to run around the Hove dog track, before being placed centre stage like objects in a noisy room full of people and sold as commodities. Some were sold for several thousands of pounds, and some left with no future as they weren't sold due to not being fast enough.
CHDT phoned the number listed in the brochure the morning of the auction to ask what was needed to come along to the auction. We were told, "no registration is needed, all you need is cash, or credit card and to be able to take the dog away today". When we asked if it was possible to collect the dog later as we won't have a registered kennel to keep the dog in yet ( a legal requirement for a racing greyhound) we were told "no you must take them away today'. Anybody could have come and purchased one of these dogs, no ID was required. Some of them sold for hardly anything, so it's conceivable that these dogs could have been bought for dog fighting or multiple other darker purposes. With no ID required from the buyer, and no kennel to go to they could have ended up anywhere.
The footage we obtained show how thin these dogs are. Many dogs had sore bald patches around the rear (often caused by sitting in their own urine over time) and others looked terrified. One dog was even witnessed wetting itself on stage during the auction, which was soon cleared up, due to a live feed of the auction being streamed on the auction website.These dogs were petrified and confused coming out of the auction with a stranger they'd never met before. Shoved in the back of several vans by those that brought them and driven off to a life that is inconceivable.
One member of the CHDT team spoke to several of these buyers as they loaded the dogs into their vehicles. Posing as an innocent passer buy they simply said things like "what lovely dogs, do you race them here" and they said things like "no we're not using them for greyhound racing" and when we said "oh have you just brought them?" they replied with "they're going to a good home, these dogs have a better life than a homeless person" (not much hope there then) and "they'll have a big bed" as if that's all that matters. Most of them however just shuffled off as quickly as possible, picking the dogs up and placing them in their vans as soon as they could so they could drive away. They were shifty, to say the least. Scruffy and suspicious. Experiencing the auction made our undercover investigators feel sick to the stomach, and the shared hell of watching these dogs leave with a total stranger for a miserable life was unbearable.
Only in this industry is it legal to hold a dog auction, where innocent living souls are sold off to the highest bidder, just like people were in the days of the human slave trade. In 2019 this is unbelievable. The government allow it to continue of course because of the tax revenue from gambling.
Profit over life.
Only us humans that see the wrong in this industry can put pressure on the future governments to end this archaic industry once and for all, as they have already in multiple other countries now. The UK is so incredibly backward.
Join your local dog track, protest group. And if you live near Hove join us outside Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium where we speak up for those that cant each and every Saturday between 5.30p-7pm.
Compassion without action is merely an observation.
CHDT phoned the number listed in the brochure the morning of the auction to ask what was needed to come along to the auction. We were told, "no registration is needed, all you need is cash, or credit card and to be able to take the dog away today". When we asked if it was possible to collect the dog later as we won't have a registered kennel to keep the dog in yet ( a legal requirement for a racing greyhound) we were told "no you must take them away today'. Anybody could have come and purchased one of these dogs, no ID was required. Some of them sold for hardly anything, so it's conceivable that these dogs could have been bought for dog fighting or multiple other darker purposes. With no ID required from the buyer, and no kennel to go to they could have ended up anywhere.
The footage we obtained show how thin these dogs are. Many dogs had sore bald patches around the rear (often caused by sitting in their own urine over time) and others looked terrified. One dog was even witnessed wetting itself on stage during the auction, which was soon cleared up, due to a live feed of the auction being streamed on the auction website.These dogs were petrified and confused coming out of the auction with a stranger they'd never met before. Shoved in the back of several vans by those that brought them and driven off to a life that is inconceivable.
One member of the CHDT team spoke to several of these buyers as they loaded the dogs into their vehicles. Posing as an innocent passer buy they simply said things like "what lovely dogs, do you race them here" and they said things like "no we're not using them for greyhound racing" and when we said "oh have you just brought them?" they replied with "they're going to a good home, these dogs have a better life than a homeless person" (not much hope there then) and "they'll have a big bed" as if that's all that matters. Most of them however just shuffled off as quickly as possible, picking the dogs up and placing them in their vans as soon as they could so they could drive away. They were shifty, to say the least. Scruffy and suspicious. Experiencing the auction made our undercover investigators feel sick to the stomach, and the shared hell of watching these dogs leave with a total stranger for a miserable life was unbearable.
Only in this industry is it legal to hold a dog auction, where innocent living souls are sold off to the highest bidder, just like people were in the days of the human slave trade. In 2019 this is unbelievable. The government allow it to continue of course because of the tax revenue from gambling.
Profit over life.
Only us humans that see the wrong in this industry can put pressure on the future governments to end this archaic industry once and for all, as they have already in multiple other countries now. The UK is so incredibly backward.
Join your local dog track, protest group. And if you live near Hove join us outside Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium where we speak up for those that cant each and every Saturday between 5.30p-7pm.
Compassion without action is merely an observation.