Hounded out
Last updated 13:04, Tuesday, 01 April 2008
Two taut, sleek, shards of energy torpedo out of a small, dark room. After leaping and pawing at a stocky man for a few seconds, earning rubs and pats in return, they are ushered through a wire gate and rocket away up a muddy slope.
In a few days time, Tom Edgar will be unleashing these two at Brough Park, the Newcastle Greyhound Stadium, watched by more than 2,000 people.
Plans to build a greyhound track in Cockermouth were shelved by town councillors recently following a welter of opposition.
Animal rights activists from across the UK and around the world protested against the plans and there have been angry exchanges with supporters in the letters pages and web forums of the News & Star over recent weeks.
But Tom reckons the region has missed out on a big chance to bring new money and jobs to the region.
The Lonsdale Stadium track in Workington closed nine years ago, leaving a major sporting hole for many in the area.
Hundreds of people from West Cumbria now head north every week to the Halcrow Stadium at Gretna for Friday night racing.
Tom was on holiday while the debate over the Cockermouth plans raged.
He’s not sure about how serious they were, but believes it’s an opportunity lost for the area.
He said: “I would love a track to open in West Cumbria because interest generates interest.
“I wish someone with a few quid would say ‘we will give it five years and see how popular it is’.
“It would only cost £100,000 to get a stadium up and running and it would boost the local economy.”
Tom’s base is a cottage perched under a footbridge and on the verge of a main road in North Side, on the outskirts of Workington.
The rows of kennels with corrugated roofing spread out behind the house, with an acre and a half of grassy ‘gallops’ fenced off further back.
Many of the dogs spend most of their time muzzled and get 20 minutes on the gallops three times a day.
In the shelter of an open shed, a pile of leeks, carrots and celery are waiting to be chopped and added to a pot of simmering chicken stew which is made fresh for the dogs every day as a supplement to their high-protein feed.
Tom, 54, runs the business with wife Trudy, a nurse with the Hospice at Home charity, and son Joe.
There have always been dogs in Tom’s life.
His dad was a miner who raced as a hobby.
When Tom fell off a roof, it finished him as a builder and he started looking after greyhounds for people he knew ‘to make ends meet’.
“It soon went from a hobby to a business and we have won a lot of big races,” he grinned.
He took out a professional trainer’s licence 10 years ago and started with 10 dogs.
Now he trains between 50 and 60 and is contracted to the Newcastle track to race dogs there.
“All tracks contract trainers they can depend on to provide dogs of a certain calibre for racing.
“We race there five nights a week, but if our dogs are good enough, we also race at Belle Vue, Manchester; Shawfield, Glasgow; Monmore, Wolverhampton and Coventry.”
The racing jackets of two of his winners are framed on the dining room wall of his home – the 1997 Workington St Leger winner Bally Trip and the 1994 Workington Derby winner Valley Princess.
“We have had lots of good dogs, but not what you would call national champions.
“We have got a potential marathon prospect (a 1,000 metre race) in Stay Well and a couple of very exciting young dogs, one called Romeo Hurricane.
“He is only 17 months but has had two races, one a win and one second and he could be Open Class.”
‘Open Class’ is the Premiership of greyhound racing, where a dog can be entered for the top races at any track in the country, instead of being restricted to the track its trainer is affiliated to.
Critics say the welfare of the animals is self-regulated by the sport and that thousands of animals, unwanted once their careers are over, are killed every year.
And the horrifying story of David Smith, who turned the backyard of his home in Seaham into a killing field where he shot dogs with a bolt gun and then buried them.
A court heard Smith had put down about two dogs a week for two years, at a cost of £10 each.
According to the British Greyhound Racing Board,
Fewer than 10,000 greyhounds are now coming into licensed racing each year.
The Board says that almost 4,500 are re-homed annually by the national charity, the Retired Greyhound Trust, twice as many as five years ago.
And it claims that a further 3,500 find homes either with their owners, their trainer or through other re-homing charities.
Some will continue their careers on independent tracks or will return to their native Ireland, while others are ‘euthanased’, because they may be temperamentally unsuitable for re-homing or have health problems.
Tom maintains that welfare of the dogs is critically important to all those involved in the sport.
He’s proud of the two air-conditioned, temperature-controlled vans he uses to ferry the dogs to and from meetings, his kennels are neat and tidy and his dogs look sleek, shiny, well-fed and happy enough.
And he personally vets would-be owners to make sure they have proper plans for the long-term future of their animals before taking them on.
“Welfare now is massive, and rightly so.”
He nods grimly when I bring up the subject of the Seaham case.
“There is a misconception people have got about the sport and we all get tarred with the same brush.
“But people look after their greyhounds, they love them, it is very unfair.
“Before I take on a new owner, I interview them and want to know what they will do with the dog at the end of its career. I want to know it will be happy and properly cared for.
“Most greyhound owners are very responsible. We get spot checks four or five times by vets and everyone who handles the dogs have to be licensed.”
A greyhound starts racing aged 15 months and will usually race until it is five years old.
As well as his 50-or-so racing dogs, Tom also works for the Retired Greyhound Trust and has around 20 retired dogs looking for new homes and has re-homed 300 in the past four years.
Despite the reaction to the Cockermouth plans, he remains cautiously optimistic about the future, which is increasingly up-market.
He said: “It is not dying off as a sport, and never will ... but it is not what it was.
“When I was a young lad, there were so many tracks, it was unbelievable.
“It used to have a cloth cap image, but it is a lot more corporate now, with syndicates involved in owning dogs and special group packages being offered by tracks.
“There is still the interest in Cumbria for a track to be viable, as long as the right people get involved.
“There is still a big, big interest in West Cumbria.”
Anyone interested in racing or in homing a greyhound can contact Tom on 01900 872776 or go to www.retiredgreyhounds.co.uk or call 0870 4440673.
