GREYHOUND racing faces a government inquiry after the revelation that hundreds of healthy dogs are being slaughtered every year because they have passed their peak on the racetrack.

The National Greyhound Racing Club, which governs the sport, and the Environment Department said they would examine evidence uncovered by The Sunday Times that one man is killing the dogs on an industrial scale and charging their owners £10 a time.

David Smith, a builder’s merchant at Seaham, Co Durham, is alleged to have killed an estimated 10,000 greyhounds over the past 15 years. According to the newspaper he kills them with a bolt gun in his garden shed, wheels them out in a barrow to a hole in his one-acre garden and covers the bodies using a mechanical digger.

The Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare will hold a meeting today and press for an immediate official inquiry.

Eric Martlew, MP for Carlisle, will today urge colleagues to pressure the Government for an inquiry. He said: “This is absolutely appalling. It’s time the industry cleaned up its act.

“For a long time now people have thought this kind of thing has been going on but without any evidence. I think the industry is in denial about it. There must have been hundreds if not thousands of people in the industry that knew what this man was doing.

“I also suspect this isn’t the only canine killing field like this. There are probably others around the country.”

On two consecutive days an undercover reporter filmed trainers delivering greyhounds to Mr Smith to be killed. Mr Smith is quoted as saying: “I am doing a service because the council and everyone who comes here, the RSPCA . . . begged us not to pack it in because if I do there will be dogs all over the streets . . . that’s what they said to me.” The RSPCA said it had no record of speaking to Mr Smith.

Ben Bradshaw, the minister responsible for animal welfare, said that he was shocked by the report.

Greyhounds race until they are 3 to 5 years old. Some are found new homes as pets and live to an age of 12 to 14, but many simply vanish.

Alistair McLean, chief executive of the National Greyhound Racing Club, said: “We categorically don’t endorse this kind of thing.”

Mr Smith said outside his home yesterday: “We are considering legal action [over the story]. It has been blown up out of all proportion, and I’m not doing it any more anyway.”

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