Greyhound racing
[4] In the UK, under the GBGB retirement scheme (introduced in 2020) greyhounds are ensured an approved GRS homing centre after racing.
[7] The first recorded attempt at racing greyhounds on a straight track was made beside the Welsh Harp reservoir, Hendon, England, in 1876, but this experiment did not develop.
The industry emerged in its recognizable modern form, featuring circular or oval tracks, with the invention of the mechanical, or artificial, hare in 1912 by an American, Owen Patrick Smith.
[9] The Emeryville arena was torn down in February 1920 to make way for the construction of a modern racetrack using the mechanical lure, described in the press as the "automatic rabbit.
[11] The oval track and mechanical hare were introduced to Britain, in 1926, by another American, Charles Munn, in association with Major Lyne-Dixson, a Canadian, who was a key figure in coursing.
), they launched the Greyhound Racing Association, holding the first British meeting at Manchester's Belle Vue Stadium.
Middle-class reformers were outraged,[12] and the working-class delighted, with the emergence in the late-1920s of Greyhound racing as an entertaining new sport and betting opportunity.
[13][14] The working class appreciated the nearby urban locations of the tracks and the evening times of the meetings.
Sponsorship, limited television coverage, and the later abolition of on-course betting tax have partially offset this decline.
[18] Greyhound racing is a popular industry in Ireland with the majority of tracks falling under the control of Rásaíocht Con Éireann (GRI) which is a commercial semi-state body and reports to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
In recent years the racing industry has made significant progress in establishing programs for the adoption of retired racers.
Violators are subject to criminal penalties and loss of their racing licenses by state gaming commissions and a permanent ban from the National Greyhound Association.
[35] A series of research papers have indicated that the greyhound racing industry played an important role in the rise of drug-resistant hookworms.
