Events Calender 1998

vent

alender 1998

This short, but hopefully informative recall will show to date the people who we have met and the places where we have met.
Although the first half of 1998 has been predominantly quiet the second half of the year seems to be making up for lost ground.
I will now attempt to update you on the current situation.
The Month Of May
After several telephone calls and letters I was fortunate to open a dialog with members of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Since then I have submitted several ideas to them requesting help to alert the members of the general public to reflect what happens to greyhounds after their racing period is finished. This is in the pipeline and will hopefully will bring fruition sooner rather than later.
Later in the month I was invited to a meeting with Angela Beveridge of the "Political Animal Lobby" at the Central Lobby, House Of Commons. This meeting was also attended by Mrs. Eileen Gordon MP whose constituency is in Romford, home of one of the largest greyhound stadiums in the London area. It was discussed at that meeting of how best to address the growing greyhound problem especially the problem of greyhounds who are past their racing sell by date. These are the main candidates for re-location to either flapping tracks or Spanish hellholes. While I was in the capital I was fortunate enough to drop in and speak with Clarissa Baldwin, Chief Executive of the National Canine Defence League. I took the opportunity to brief her on the forthcoming meeting at Westminster.
The Month Of June
June saw the Euro Summit in Cardiff. Unfortunately this was a closed assembly and I did not get a chance to lobby any of the European Ministers. Instead a second meeting was arranged in London between P.A.L. ; R.A.G.S. and several prominent MP's. A full report of the meeting can be found by following this link.

The Month Of July
July, being the traditional holiday month affairs have been placed on the back burner. The day to day running of R.A.G.S. goes on unabated with letters to write and letters to answer. However, I have been given the chance to recharge by batteries so to speak. And all to good effect. The next meeting is the big one!

The Month Of August
The twice a year meeting of the International Greyhound Forum is here again. Delegates from England; Scotland; Wales; Ireland and the United States came together for our bi-annual meeting in the European city of culture - Dublin. The meeting was to last from 11am going through to 4.30pm. Please follow the link to this page for a full transcript of the minutes from the meeting.
This was a chance to meet with other organisations who have joined forces and who are equally dedicated to resolving the greyhound problem. This for some was in fact the very first time we had met - but hopefully not the last.

The Month Of September
On September 16th at the European Union Headquarters in Strasbourg the petition on which signatures has been collected against the grant aid will at last be forwarded to the President of the European Parliament. It will be kindly delivered on behalf of R.A.G.S. by our own local M.E.P. Mr. David Morris who has always been a keen supporter of R.A.G.S. right from the begining. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Morris most sincerly for all the help that he has given to the organisation in the past and we hope that we can look forward to an even stronger working relationship the future days to come

The Rest Of The Year
Well who will know what the rest of the year will hold for us. What I do know is there is conflicting evidence regarding the grant aid for the Irish farmers. We do know that for the present, the grants have stopped - that's the good news. The bad news is that they plan to re-introduce them on or before the year 2000. All we can do is wait and see. The problem with that is there is still a great number of greyhounds being produced, there is still a huge number of greyhounds racing on Spanish tracks in the scorching mid-day sun, there is still an undisclosed number of greyhounds being culled because they won't make the grade on a race track. It is hoped that with the start of the new parliamentary year the question of the greyhounds will be raised in the House Of Commons. This of course has been outlined before but I am confident that with enough gentle persuasion the European Parliament must see the errors of their ways.