Greyhound rehoming organisation does not expect ‘that many’ dogs in need of home when racing ends
The last greyhound race in Swindon will take place in December
Last updated 6th May 2025
A Swindon organisation for rehoming greyhounds says it is not expecting a big rise in demand once greyhound racing comes to an end in the town.
According to Greyhounds Swindon and Beyond, it is likely that many of racing dogs will follow their trainers to other tracks.
Gaming International, the owners of Abbey Stadium, announced earlier this year that the last race is set to take place on the 30th of December.
Jayne Harrop-Conway, who runs Greyhounds Swindon and Beyond, told Greatest Hits Radio: “The assumption is when a track closes that all the dogs that race at that track will need rehoming and that quite simply isn't the case.
“Some of the Swindon trainers are retiring, but others are going to race at other tracks and that the dogs will go there. So, I don't anticipate that there will be an awful lot of dogs needing retiring. There will be some, but I don't think there'll be that many.”
With many greyhounds expected to leave the town, there will also be fewer dogs available for adoption.
While greyhounds are making their way onto peoples’ lists of dogs that make for good pets, a decrease in visibility in Swindon could be a “disadvantage”.
'Marvellous pets'
“If you get greyhounds being adopted in a geographical area and the more they're seen in that area, the greater the demand becomes”, explained Ms Harrop-Conway.
Swindon has a greyhound walk, though, where people from across the town meet up with their greyhounds and take them on walks together.
The walks are also open for people who are interested in the dogs, so Ms Harrop-Conway tends to bring a number of greyhounds that are available for adoption along.
“It's amazingly successful. The last one had 45 greyhounds on it. Now this is getting quite a lot of publicity and people are getting in touch with me saying ‘I’d like to meet a greyhound, perhaps to adopt’.
“People can see all these exceptionally well behaved dogs walking on mass and it makes the prospect of adopting a greyhound quite attractive because of seeing how well behaved they are”, Ms Harrop-Conway said.
“They're much, much easier than Labradors or Golden Retrievers, big pulley dogs, because they tend not to pull. They tend to walk very nicely on the leads and they make absolutely marvellous pets.
“Most of them adapt very, very quickly to living in a house and most of them adapt very, very quickly to living with other dogs and other breeds of dogs. So, they're just fabulous pets.”