Joy Battley is a greyhound enthusiast but her close involvement with the sport has meant she has seen its darker side.
She knows the breed well through racing her own at a track in Harlow, as well as managing Barley Kennels in Waltham Abbey – a rehoming centre for retired greyhounds.
It has meant she has seen first-hand how quickly dogs can be discarded with numerous owners often opting to put animals down rather than pay expensive veterinary bills when injuries occur.
"For a nation of dog lovers we don't do very well," she says.
She is adamant that those profiting the most need to face up to their responsibilities.
"Bookmakers, who benefit greatly from the sport, especially at the moment, are putting more pressure on the trainers to have more dogs but those dogs have got to have somewhere to go when they finish racing."
It is estimated there are 13,500 racing greyhounds in Britain.
Data taken from UK race tracks – published for the first time by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain – shows how, in 2017, hundreds of dogs were injured and destroyed after racing.
Around 5,000 injuries were recorded and, of those, more than 900 dogs were put down.
A total of 257 were destroyed at the trackside; in 333 cases treatment was deemed to be either too expensive or unnecessary because of a poor prognosis and then there were the 348 healthy dogs destroyed because they couldn't be rehomed.
"There are very few injuries that can't be fixed by a vet," Ms Battley insists.
"It just comes down to money.
"They won't all get a home, that's probably impossible, but there should be places for them to go, like here.
"They need centres or sanctuaries, somewhere the dogs can go to live out the rest of their lives, it doesn't have to be in a home."
In horse racing, bookmakers pay a statutory levy which partly goes towards ring-fencing money for animal welfare.
Part of the problem for greyhound racing is that its levy isn't compulsory.
Mark Bird who heads up the Greyhound Board of Great Britain insists the organisation is pushing to get bookies to pay more.
"Our ambition is to incentivise trainers not to put those dogs to sleep merely on the fact that it is too expensive to have medical care.
"We're currently in mediation talks with the bookmakers at the moment to try to get some of their offshore revenue which would take us from £7.2m up to £9.9m but… this is a voluntary levy, so we are completely in the hands of the bookmakers paying this."
Chris Pitt from the League Against Cruel Sports says the industry treats greyhounds like commodities.
"Although they might say they want to improve things, it's based on money and gambling, so compassion for the dogs is not going to get in the way."
Mr Pitt believes the sport should be banned.
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"We have been working with and hoping that the industry itself, or the Government, could improve the way it is run but we have got to a point where enough is enough.
"It doesn't matter what the greyhound racing industry says it is doing, you can't have greyhound racing without serious animal welfare problems.
"So as a country we have to ask ourselves, do we want greyhound racing or do we want to be a country of animal welfare lovers? I think we're the latter."
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