Greyhound racing raises welfare concerns at every stage from training to retirement, and bans have been adopted in multiple jurisdictions as evidence of harm has accumulated.
Greyhound racing welfare encompasses the entire lifecycle of racing dogs, from selective breeding and intensive training through the racing career and into retirement. The industry has historically had poor animal accountability — dogs that cannot race are sometimes abandoned, killed, or exported without welfare guarantees. Racing injuries including muscle tears, bone fractures, and track burns are common and well documented. The emergence of greyhound adoption and rehoming movements has transformed the retirement welfare picture in countries where they have taken hold, demonstrating that these dogs have strong companion animal qualities. Where greyhound racing continues, welfare standards that require injury reporting, ban punitive training methods, and mandate funded rehoming programmes for all dogs that leave racing represent the minimum acceptable framework.