New report highlights a rising death rate and animal welfare problems in the greyhound racing industry

A new report has found a rising death rate among racing greyhounds in the UK and a series of animal welfare problems in the greyhound racing industry.

The report establishes that greyhound trackside fatalities have risen by 30 per cent between 2022 and 2024 despite the Greyhound Board of Great Britain issuing figures that masked the trend.

The research was carried out by researchers at the University of Melbourne using AI agents to compile data on 31,028 licensed greyhounds that ran in more than 1.26 million race starts in the UK between January 2022 and March 2026.

Their figures showed one in four racing dogs – around 24 per cent – experienced at least one adverse event (including injuries or fatalities) during their observation period, with falls affecting one in six dogs.

Emily Lawrence, campaigns manager at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “This report lifts the lid on the cruelty associated with greyhound racing, the huge number of deaths and injuries it causes, and the unreliability of the greyhound industry’s animal welfare figures.

“It’s time for change. The government needs to act and ban greyhound racing in England to end the suffering and misery the greyhounds currently face.”

Dr Mia Cobb, lead researcher and animal welfare scientist from the University of Melbourne, said: “The UK greyhound racing industry describes itself as transparent and publishes some annual welfare figures publicly, however the data doesn’t offer real visibility about what it’s like to be a greyhound.”

Using agentic AI – software that performs repetitive tasks under continuous human supervision – Dr Cobb combined information from several public websites to uncover animal welfare insights at a scale and speed that would have taken a team of researchers months.

“We first noticed the industry reported a stable rate of on-track fatalities when the number of deaths were rising and race numbers were falling, which didn’t make sense,” Dr Cobb said.

“Subsequent analysis revealed that the on-track fatality rate for racing greyhounds had actually increased by 30 per cent between 2022 and 2024.

“By rounding fatality rates to two decimal places, the regulator’s reporting over the past three years concealed the fact that more dogs were dying even as race starts declined.

“The UK’s greyhound welfare strategy cannot claim improved canine safety, with more than two dogs dying on-track every week since its introduction in 2022. This led us to use AI agents to explore what else was going on.”

Co-researcher and deputy director of the University’s Centre for AI and Digital Ethics, Dr Simon Coghlan fears these reported fatalities are only the tip of the iceberg as public registries don’t disclose post-race deaths caused by injuries sustained while racing.

“Our research highlights a major visibility issue,” Dr Coghlan said.

“There is no public registry that accounts for individual dogs’ post racing welfare, however we know the Greyhound Board of Great Britain holds unpublished data on retirement destinations, career-ending reasons, as well as individual-level injury and euthanasia figures linked to specific racetracks.

“Restricting access to this information allows the industry to go unchecked regarding its accountability to animal welfare claims.”

The results also revealed the high turnover of greyhounds has not changed, with around 40 per cent of racing dogs stopping every year.

The researchers also discovered the rate at which greyhounds encounter harmful events while racing at different locations.

“We found that the typical greyhound races for less than a year and that some tracks have higher rates of incidents like crashes and falls,” said Dr Cobb.

“This detail has not been disclosed by the regulator, even when pressed by the Welsh parliamentary committee debating a ban.”

Two landmark bills banning greyhound racing in both Wales and Scotland were passed by the Welsh and Scottish parliaments earlier this year.

Greyhound racing is also being phased out in New Zealand this year and is now illegal in 42 states in the USA.

An earlier report conducted by Professor Andrew Knight, a veterinary professor of animal welfare, and commissioned by the campaign group Greyt Exploitations, was very critical of animal welfare standards in greyhound racing – it established racing greyhounds around oval tracks is inherently dangerous, putting huge strain on the dogs’ bodies.

You can find out more on the greyhound fatality rate and the reported vs the actual figures here: