TWO greyhounds whose deaths are at the centre of a scandal that has engulfed the dog-racing industry were shot because they had performed poorly a few days earlier.

The dogs, whose names are now known to be Clash Nitro and Rent a Flyer, were pictured by an undercover photographer for The Sunday Times being led to their deaths by David Smith, the industry’s unofficial “executioner”. He is said to have killed up to 10,000 greyhounds over 15 years.

Smith was photographed just moments later pushing the greyhounds’ bodies in a wheelbarrow to bury them behind his house. Both dogs were less than three years old when they were killed this month.

It has now been established that the dogs were considered worthless by their owners, Gillian Young, a licensed trainer, and her husband Graeme, assistant racing manager at Pelaw Grange greyhound track in Co Durham.

Each dog had won races earlier this year but after they under-performed at a meeting three weeks ago the Youngs decided they did not want to continue racing them. The couple were told by a rehoming charity three days later that they would have to wait about a week before the greyhounds could be taken.

Instead, the next morning Clash Nitro and Rent a Flyer were taken to be shot in the head by Smith, a builders’ merchant from Seaham, Co Durham.

Their deaths were the subject of an exposé two weeks ago by The Sunday Times which showed how trainers were resorting to the mass slaughter of greyhounds no longer considered fast enough to race.

The revelations have shaken the greyhound industry and led to a government inquiry. Last week there were fresh calls for the animal welfare bill before parliament to be amended to subject trainers and owners to external regulation.

The Sunday Times secretly filmed the dogs being taken by Gillian Young and her father Sid Fenwick, also a licensed trainer, to be put down by Smith, who was then shown burying them in his back garden with a mechanical digger.

He told an undercover reporter it took him three years to fill the one-acre plot with bodies.

At the time the identities of Fenwick, the Youngs and the names of both dogs were unknown. Last week, however, the trainers’ details emerged and both Fenwick and Gillian Young were suspended by the National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC), the sport’s governing body, pending an inquiry that could see them banned.

Fenwick claimed he had been given the dogs by an unnamed man and did not know their identities, but their full histories have now been established.

Each illustrates how greyhounds are exploited to provide cheap entertainment and betting fodder before commonly being killed once their usefulness has ended.

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