GBGB not fit for purpose.

In December 2020 professional greyhound trainer Darryl Porter leased part of a redundant grain barn to house 50 greyhounds and was forced to submit a retrospective planning application to Wiltshire Council in March 2021. PL/2021/04295

The structure is metal/asbestos clad (corrugated sheets) with a steel framework – neither of which are listed as a suitable building material in BSI PAS 251:2017. There are no windows although a source of natural light comes through skylights positioned in the asbestos roof – none of which open. There are two entry doors adjacent to one another. The planning inspectorate visited the premises on May 22^nd 2022 and stated – “Evidence suggests that the building is without basic services” and we believe the premises are not serviced by mains electric – water – gas or sewerage.

No one lives on the premises with Mr Porter living two miles away and by his own admission through submitted planning documents – the dogs are left from 8pm to 8am although our investigation revealed the dogs are left for more than 16 hours a day with no one present between the hours of 2pm and 7am except for 20 minutes when dogs are returned from the track following a meeting.

GBGB Rules of Racing 212 (g) Minimum Requirements for all residential Licensed Kennels and Transportation of Greyhounds states: “The GBGB shall be informed of any extensions or construction of new Kennels (including exercise area) and written approval shall be obtained before works commence. All proposals for such works shall be submitted to and approved by the Local Authority, for both Planning Approval and/or Building Regulations Approval as may be necessary”

Despite the building constructed in wholly unsuitable materials and with no planning permisson – the GBGB granted Mr Porter a professional trainer’s licence on January 1st 2021 and he has continued to race circa 25 dogs per week at Swindon dog track.

Rule 212 (f) also sates: “Precautions taken to prevent and control the spread of infectious or contagious diseases shall include the provision of adequate isolation facilities. Isolation Kennels shall be single Kennels of not less than 2.3 metres (7 feet 6 inches) depth by width 1.0 metre (3 feet 3 inches) with a small separate paddock, provided in the ratio of one isolation Kennel to every 12 Greyhounds and shall be entirely separate from the main Kennels”

The plans submitted to Wiltshire Council contain no provision for isolation kennels and a vet inspection conducted on 5^th December 2021 confirms the isolation kennels are “unfinished due to planning requirements” We also saw no evidence of any isolation kennels or separate paddocks.

The vet inspection form also states there are 63 dogs in total – 58 racers and 5 retired – 5 more than the capacity of the kennels.

Wiltshire Council refused planning and consequently Mr Porter appealed.

Documents submitted by RCC Town Country Planning on behalf of Mr Porter show that kennels were inspected by SCI on November 17^th 2021.

Subsequently GBGB awarded Mr Porter a Certificate of Conformity dated March 29^th 2022.

Greyt Exploitations were able to access the kennels via the redundant grain barn in September 2021 and July 2022 without forcing entry. There were no security measures in place – overnight supervision – burglar alarms – emergency contact numbers or smoke alarms all in breach of PAS 251.

In September last year video footage taken over 48 hours shows the premises were attended by two kennel hands and the trainer from 7am until 12.15pm. The dogs were left unattended from 12.15pm until 7am the next day apart from 20 minutes when the kennel hand returned the dogs racing that day from the track. Leaving the unraced and ‘retired’ dogs confined to soiled kennels for more than 23.5 hours.

The dogs were let out into the paddocks for no more than 10 minutes whilst the kennels were being cleaned and again after they had been fed. So – they only had at a maximum 20 minutes exercise with no environmental enrichment whilst confined to kennels – many of them displaying abnormal repetitive behaviour. There was no affection or care shown to any of the dogs at any point.

We believe the single kennel sizes are smaller than those specified in PAS 251 and clearly in some cases the dogs would not have been able “stretch and lie flat without touching another greyhound or the sides of the kennel” – a condition of PAS 251.