Industry chief warns ban on greyhound racing would drive sport underground
The Scottish Parliament is considering calls to ban greyhound racing
An outright ban on greyhound racing would run the risk of sending the sport underground, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) has warned.
Holyrood's Rural Affairs Committee is currently considering a petition on behalf of Scotland Against Greyhounds Exploitation which calls for a complete ban on the sport.
Scotland currently only has one operating track which is not regulated by the GBGB, the Thornton Stadium course in Fife, which has around 40 meetings per year.
But as a report from the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) concluded to the committee that the end of greyhound racing would be "desirable", Mark Bird, the GBGB chief executive, said a ban could push people to race their dogs illegally and without regulation.
Scotland's only GBGB-regulated track - Shawfield in Glasgow - ceased operation due to Covid-19.
The Welsh Government could ban the sport following a petition signed by 35,000 people.
Mr Bird told the committee: "There are now 23 Scotland-based trainers that are now travelling between where their bases are in Scotland to most likely Newcastle or Sunderland.
"The effect on a ban - it depends on the detail - it may well be that even Scotland-based trainers couldn't continue to carry out what they're doing, assuming they're doing it for payment, to come over the border to England.
"Our views have always been the same. Have the governments done enough to actually look at the legislation and the regulation without having to go for a ban? Because actually to ban something outright from our point of view would just drive it underground."
Reaction from Thornton Stadium owner
Paul Brignal, owner of the unregulated Thornton Stadium, said his course would have no choice but to close if a ban was imposed.
He told the committee: "The injustices of banning greyhound racing would be terrible... I don't think anyone has ever come forward with a good enough reason to ban greyhound racing compared with other sports."
He earlier said the SAWC had showed an "unacceptable anti-greyhound racing sentiment" despite it reporting evidence of "no negative contact" or signs of "poor welfare" for the dogs at the track.
Racing dogs and euthanasia
Mr Bird also told the committee that efforts had been ramped up to crack down on the number of greyhound dogs who are euthanised following the end of their racing career.
Under GBGB regulations, the racing dogs must be kept in licensed kennels and not at home, and some can be deemed unsuitable for rehoming because of behaviour issues as a result, he said.
But 190 were put to sleep in 2018 for this reason, compared to just 13 in 2021 due to the efforts of the GBGB to teach trainers that the dogs are not just "commodities".
The GBGB also denied claims from animal welfare groups that dogs are drugged with class A substances to make them race faster.
Dogs are randomly sampled on race days and vets are present at regulated tracks to act as a deterrent for trainers.
The SAWC report said: "If Thornton were to close, Scotland would be in the position of having no organised greyhound racing taking place, which on balance we consider desirable."
The committee will hear from animal welfare groups and Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon as part of their consideration of the petition.