Wales Bans Greyhound Racing: A Victory for Ignorance, A Warning for Horseracing

The Welsh Government has done it again. Not solved a crisis, not improved the lives of its citizens, but removed a thing—because, as we all know, if something carries even the faintest whiff of risk, tradition, or, heaven forbid, fun, then it must be quietly smothered under the all-encompassing duvet of modern governance.

This time, it’s greyhound racing, a sport that has existed for over a century, provided livelihoods for thousands, and given purpose to animals literally bred for the thrill of the chase. But no more. It’s been deemed unsafe, unethical, improper. The Senedd has risen from its slumber of managerial dullness and decided that, despite all evidence to the contrary, this must go.

And so, with the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen, an entire industry is consigned to the past, as if it had been some sort of terrible mistake all along.

The Great Fear of Freedom and Purpose

The reasoning, as presented by the Senedd, is entirely modern in its absurdity. Greyhounds, you see, might get injured. Well, yes. Anything that moves is at risk of injury. You are more likely to suffer a broken ankle stepping off a kerb in Cardiff than a greyhound is to suffer a serious injury at the track. The human body, like the canine one, is not designed for absolute safety—it is built for motion, for purpose, for action.

And yet, here we are, legislating against activity itself.

Because the modern world cannot tolerate the idea that risk exists. It must be eliminated, erased, made illegal. Where once people understood that danger was an inseparable part of life—that all things worth doing contain an element of peril—we now see risk as something that must be managed, reduced, and ultimately removed altogether.

And when risk is removed, so too is meaning.

Greyhounds, much like people, are happiest when doing what they were born to do. A greyhound that races is alive in the fullest sense. A greyhound that is forced into a life of dull, risk-free safety is no greyhound at all—it is a pet in a holding pattern.

A creature designed for speed, competition, and excitement will now be reduced to a decorative presence in suburban homes, its only thrill coming from an occasional chase of a tennis ball in a park.

And this is what the Welsh Government considers progress.

A Society That Governs by Elimination

Make no mistake—this is not about greyhounds. This is about the steady, creeping elimination of anything that doesn’t fit the narrow, carefully curated definition of “acceptable” modern life.

• Minimum alcohol pricing? Introduced, because cheap pints are dangerous.

• 20mph speed limits everywhere? Enforced, because movement is dangerous.

• New roads? Blocked, because driving is dangerous.

• Greyhound racing? Banned, because competition is dangerous.

And so it goes. Bit by bit, the country is being stripped of all the things that make it dynamic, unpredictable, and—above all—worth living in.

What happens when every trace of uncertainty has been regulated away? When there is no more movement, no more chance, no more challenge?

When everything is safe, yet nothing is alive?

If they had their way, we’d all be quietly cycling to work on government-approved bicycles, sipping our legally-mandated low-alcohol beers, and only participating in state-approved activities—none of which involve moving at high speeds or having too much fun.

Welcome to Wales, where the future is a perfectly safe, perfectly lifeless existence.

Mark Johnston: A Wake-Up Call for Horseracing

Mark Johnston, a man who actually understands animals, is rightly baffled by the reasoning behind the ban.

“It’s absolutely crazy and makes no sense. The whole thing is terribly sad and it is based on ignorance.”

He warns that horseracing is next—because, of course, it is. If greyhound racing is too risky, why wouldn’t they come for a sport where horses frequently fall, sometimes fatally?

Because this is how it always starts. First, you remove the easy target—the smaller sport, the one without deep-pocketed corporate sponsors. Then you move up the chain.

The activists who campaigned for this ban will not stop now.

They will turn their attention to horseracing, then show-jumping, then eventing, then fishing.

And why not? Once the precedent is set that animals cannot be used in sport if there is even the smallest risk of injury, then all animal sports must logically follow.

This is how it always happens. First they come for the dogs, then the horses, then the rest. And by the time they’ve finished, there will be nothing left except state-mandated “safe” hobbies that nobody wants.

A Dog Without a Race is Just a Prisoner

Johnston points out that greyhounds love to race. Anyone who has ever owned one will know this to be true. The sheer excitement of a dog at the track, the way they quiver at the sight of the lure, the way they explode out of the traps with a kind of primal joy—this is not a life of cruelty, but a life of pure, unfiltered purpose.

And now, because a handful of people in the Senedd don’t understand this, it has been taken away.

The irony?

The same people banning greyhound racing will campaign for greyhound rehoming centres, blissfully unaware that they are creating the very problem they will later pretend to solve.

They will look at rows of greyhounds—bred for the chase, built for the race—sitting listlessly in kennels, robbed of their one great purpose in life, and they will congratulate themselves on their “compassion.”

Because they do not understand what it means to be truly alive.

They do not understand joy, nor movement, nor risk. They do not understand that without a race, a greyhound is not free—it is merely existing.

Wales, the Land of Passive Existence

So, there you have it. Another victory for the slow, creeping joylessness of modern life. Another blow to risk, to excitement, to the thrill of the chase.

In the end, it’s not just greyhound racing that’s being banned.

It’s motion, chance, freedom, and unpredictability.

And that is what Wales has become: a place where movement is illegal, risk is abolished, and the only thing running freely is the smug, self-satisfied rhetoric of the people who made it this way.