Well, OK, that is an inflammatory title and may in fact not be entirely true. She might not hate them, but she certainly seems to fear them and isn’t above spreading inflammatory misinformation herself.

I am incensed, right now, that a high-profile TV vet and columnist in Dogs Today magazine could be so breath-takingly irresponsible as to write a two page article that villainises an entire breed plus the racing industry because she had a bad day at work.

Let’s get this straight, I worked as an animal nurse for over six years many moons ago and I KNOW how a bad day at work makes you feel. I learned a lot from those six years, but one thing I did not learn was that there is any one breed that deserves to be wiped off the face of the earth because of the actions of some of its members or the irresponsibility of a few stupid owners – and that is exactly what Ms Milne is implying.

What happened was this: a small dog was attacked by two ex-racing greyhounds and ended up at her surgery in a condition which she describes as ‘disembowelled’. Following major surgery, the little dog died and its elderly owners are – quite naturally – traumatised. My heart goes out to them. However, Ms Milne has now decided in her infinite wisdom that we should question whether greyhounds as a breed should continue to exist at all, and if so, whether they should be destroyed when they finish their racing career.

Okay, let’s consider this. Greyhounds (whether racing greyhounds or not) belong to a group of breeds known as sighthounds, all of whom have evolved to chase prey animals which range from the humble rabbit to small deer. This grouping includes salukis, deerhounds, afghans, podengos, galgos Espanol, Irish wolfhounds, borzois, staghounds … yes, and even whippets and Italian greyhounds which are the ‘toy’ version of the greyhound. So, to satisfy Ms Milne and her supporters, we should cease and desist breeding all of those then, right? Right. That’s made the dog world a lot safer, hasn’t it?

Oh, but wait … what about the rest of the hound group, most of which were bred to hunt game – and in packs, too! Better add those into the mix too. Goodbye otterhounds, foxhounds, beagles, harriers etc. Phew. That’s better. Now those little guys are safe, huh?

Um. But terriers are one of the snappiest group known to man! And they were bred to be indefatiguable ratters and mousers (rather like Ms Milne’s pet cats, who no doubt have accounted for many rodents and birds in their time, possibly to the chagrin of any neighbours who might be bird lovers) and these little dogs also tend to have a Napoleon complex where larger dogs are concerned. In fact, some of my greyhound friends will not now walk their dogs at all for fear of loose dogs attacking their on-leash pets, and many of these loose dogs are ‘ankle biters’. Their term, not mine. So, OK, in the interests of equality and safety, no more terriers. That must have done the trick!

Well, but what about the safety of children? Not to mention unwary adults and any other breed of dog that happens to look at a guarding breed funny? Oh my. I think we’d better think seriously about whether we should allow GSDs, rottweilers , dobermans, Belgian shepherds, bulldogs, mastiffs and Staffies to live, don’t you? Better not risk it. Into the Euthanasia Room with the lot of them!

So where are we? We have the herding breeds, which are more likely than most to misbehave without enough to do, and will sneak up behind you and bite you if they feel like it, and there’s nothing a sheep farmer hates more than an untrained collie ’rounding up’ his pregnant sheep, is there? And there are the toy breeds, which many people think need only to be toilet trained and if they snap and snark at you or your dog, well, he’s only tiny, hahaha! Isn’t he cute and brave?

Should we talk about sled dogs? Scroll down to the bit about their aggression towards other dogs, and remember this was written by a Malamute fan.

Even field dogs are not blameless. If you look at this page, you’ll see that there are more incidents involving retrievers – labs, Chesapeakes and golden retrievers, than any other group. Admittedly this is pit bull site and they’re defending their own, but they didn’t make these stories up. And I remember some years ago an elderly woman being knocked over and mauled to death by her own three goldens. And spaniels? Well, let’s not forget rage syndrome - perhaps all cocker spaniels should be banned?

Let’s stop right there and be serious. The bit above about the various breed groups was, of course, written tongue in cheek, but has a core of truth. ALL breeds have their characteristics, their strengths and their failings. All breeds are what we humans have made them. Some are more likely to bite your dog, some are more likely to bite you – several breeds have been banned following attacks on children, but you know, pit bulls still exist in this country because you cannot actually prove that someone has one and when the Dangerous Dogs Act first came into force, wording in the legislature was so vague that the description intended to be about pit bull terriers would actually fit a greyhound, ironically enough.

So, I’d like to set the record straight on a few things. Thanks to the Tia Greyhound Rescue, I can link you to Ms Milne’s article, which includes some generalisations and inaccuracies that I feel bound to refute.

Training for racing greyhounds does not include teaching them to kill small animals, and they don’t breed them for this trait.

They are simply trained to run as fast as they possibly can after a lure. Being in the sighthound group, this is what most of them will do when out and about off lead. Some of these dogs will indeed kill small creatures, unless you are a responsible owner and either teach them that this is not permitted, or if you find you can’t teach them that, prevent them from having the opportunity to do so. Of the four greyhounds I’ve personally owned, one was a fearsome hunter of small creatures, but totally, 100% small dog safe and was afraid of cats, one would have killed anything she could get her teeth around (so she was NEVER let off in company with non-greyhounds, and never without a muzzle), one will chase rabbits but when he gets close he bounces at them, inviting them to play, and one can’t even be bothered to break out of a trot if a rabbit pops up in front of her.

Ms Milne rather sneakily says ‘if it is true’ that greyhounds kill more dogs than any other breed this could be seen as unacceptable.

Well, yes, indeed it could. But I’d like to see statistics to bear that out – I’ve searched and I can’t find any. My own experience both as a greyhound owner and a long term member of Greytalk, the biggest international greyhound forum on the internet, does not bear that out. On the contrary, I’ve seen a totally unacceptable level of serious, life-threatening, and fatal attacks by other dogs on greyhounds. Some recovered after having great flaps of skin many inches wide torn from their bodies, some recovered, some died – either at the scene or later, causing a huge amount of distress for their owners. This one survived, but there’s a picture of her injuries in the thread, so don’t open it if you’re squeamish. It says ‘accident’ at the top of this thread, but in fact she was attacked by a rottweiler.

Greyhounds don’t even make it into the list of the top ten most dangerous dog breeds, so let’s try to keep a little perspective here, huh?

Ms Milne wonders if we should regard the racing greyhound as we do beef cattle or sheep.

This is how they are regarded in much of Ireland, I’m told, with the result that welfare concerns for the greyhounds there are high and I’m astonished that a veterinary surgeon would contemplate committing that one to print for people to consider.

There are other things in that article that I could discuss at great length, like the comment about the number of different species greyhounds account for. *Sigh* And what about the number of species other breeds account for, and the number of species cats account for? And the fact that greyhounds are in fact one of the least aggressive breeds with people, which must surely count for something? I don’t have figures for ‘what greyhounds account for’ but all I can say is that they are dogs, and like any other dog, if they’re not trained properly, you will have problems with them. To suggest that we need to wipe out greyhounds as a breed because of a number of incidents involving attacks on dogs is like saying we should ban all taxis because they’re well known for being involved in accidents involving pedestrians.

I think maybe she knows how many people she’s pissed off by now. I looked for a contact email on her site and there isn’t one. She does, however have a forum … um … she DID have a forum. It’s gone, possibly disabled. But you know what the saddest thing is? If you go to the ‘Ask the Vet’ page, you’ll see that the first post in there is about a woman who owns a miniature pinscher who was recently attacked and badly mauled by a pit bull mix. And she mentions this traumatic event in her front page article? Of course not.

Well done, Ms Milne. In one fell swoop, you’ve managed to undo years of campaigning by people who really do know these dogs. And they know them a damn sight better than you do.

*The picture at the top of this post was taken at Dewey Beach in Delaware where each year on Columbus weekend they hold a greyhound gathering. The whole town is filled with ex-racers plus the dogs they live with, some of them extremely small. Sensible precautions are taken by everyone and despite the fact that there are several thousand greyhounds on the streets, in the four years I’ve been attending, I don’t remember hearing about one single incident involving a greyhound attacking a small dog – or another greyhound for that matter.

* For an update and comment on the following issue, go here.