This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: This year, greyhound racing in Britain turns 100 years old. The first race took place on July 24, 1926, in Manchester, where six dogs chased a mechanical hare around a track.
Recently, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) published its 2025 welfare figures under a reassuring headline: licensed racing "maintains high welfare standards." Look closely, and those same welfare figures show that a dog in 2025 was 77% more likely to die at the racetrack (from fatal injury or being put down following an injury) than when the industry's welfare strategy was introduced in 2022, even accounting for the fact that there have been fewer races and fewer racetracks operating. In terms of a percentage of race starts, that increase in the likelihood of death seems small—from 0.03% to 0.05%. But behind that percentage are 161 dogs that died at the track in 2025: more than three dogs a week.
The GBGB is responsible for promoting and running greyhound racing, and for regulating it. This means the same entity that works to keep the sport thriving is also the one that reports on how its dogs cope. Most of the public seem to believe that people have a moral responsibility to prevent, or at least minimize, poor welfare in animals that they use for any purpose.
If an industry using animals loses public approval, the activity is probably operating on borrowed time. The case for greyhound racing continuing rests largely on the industry's own records. The UK government said in October 2025 that it has no plans to ban greyhound racing in England, pointing to improvements made by the GBGB, such as its 2022 welfare strategy and the laws already in place, which require a vet at every race meeting and set standards for recordkeeping.
UK law recognizes dogs as sentient beings—that they have feelings like joy or frustration. Once you accept that (as animal welfare scientists do), our responsibility when caring for animals doesn't stop at minimizing suffering. It extends to enabling the good experiences a life worth living requires.
The GBGB publishes annual figures on injuries, deaths and where dogs go when they leave racing, and presents them to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Few animal-reliant industries are this forthcoming. A combined total can accurately report the national injuries dogs sustained while racing, but not tell the whole story.
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