Greyhound trainers in South Yorkshire call on the racing industry to 'adapt'
John Marriott's been training greyhounds competitively for the last 40 years
A professional greyhound trainer from South Yorkshire admits there is 'room for improvement' in the sport.
John Marriott - who lives in Rotherham - has been involved in the greyhound racing industry for around 40 years now.
However, he's giving his licence up next month - as he feels the dogs are being made to race too often these days:
"Look, the world's not perfect.
"There will be times when greyhounds perhaps suffer an injury due to too much racing.
"They're athletes though and they do love to run.
"By restricting them from running, you're sort of denying them their pleasure.
"It's not a cruel sport, but there's room for improvement in certain areas.
"There's too much racing at the moment. It's almost like an overkill.
"It's not really anything like what it used to be.
"I'm sad to be packing the sport in, but on the flip side of that, it's become too tiring because of how many races are taking place.
"I don't know where the greyhounds are going to come from, as there's definitely a shortage issue right now.
"It can't carry on as it is. The greyhound racing industry has to change to survive.
"Different people train their dogs in different ways.
"I'm fortunate that I've got a two-acre paddock.
"Every dog I have goes out in the paddock every day.
"They're let off the lead and naturally they just gallop around.
"Greyhounds love to gallop around off the lead. It's what they're built to do.
This comes after the Blue Cross pet charity recently launched a new campaign to try & phase out greyhound racing in the UK over the next 5 years.