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Grey Injuries - the real comparisons
Bruce Teague Australia (Verified User) Posts 2092 Dogs 0 / Races 0 16 Mar 2020 03:02
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Below is some of the information readily available in the world of greyhound racing. It's the sort of stuff that industry publicists should be using to show the public what it is all about. It refers to "agility" dogs, which compete in competitions popular in UK and USA (but not so much here). They involve much more complex twists and turns than you might see in the average greyhound race
Reported by Denis McKeon (of the US NGA) in Injuries & Racing Greyhounds, Wednesday, February 3, 2016
"Results of a survey reported in a recent edition of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, quantified the frequency and types of agility-associated injuries. Per an article on the website, Speaking For Spot, here are some of the data gathered for that AVMA study, regarding injuries suffered by dogs who participated in agility competitions. .
The surveys were completed by 1,669 handlers of 3,801 agility dogs around the world. The data was collected in 2009. Handlers were asked to provide information, to the best of their knowledge, about the cause and nature of their dogs injuries. Documentation by a veterinarian was not required.
Here are some of the studies findings: One third (31.8%) of the dogs experienced agility-related injuries. 27.6% of the injured dogs sustained more than one agility-related injury. Soft tissue strains, sprains, and contusions (bruising) were the most commonly reported injuries. Of the 1,523 injuries analyzed, the shoulder, back, neck, and toes were the most commonly affected sites Of the injuries 50.5% were mild (required less than one month for recovery) and 44.6% were severe (required two months or longer for recovery). The remaining 4.9% were unclassified. Injuries were commonly attributed to faulty navigation/interaction with bar jumps, A-frames, and dog walk obstacles. There was no significant difference between the numbers of injuries that occurred during practice versus competitions.
To establish some sort of comparative context to racing greyhound injuries, Dr. Rob Gillette, a noted expert on canine and greyhound biomechanics, has this to offer:
"In a survey reported by Bloomberg and Dugger, there were 761 injuries reported for a total of 47,323 races ran at sixteen racetracks between the years of 1984-1990. Eight Greyhounds run in a race, so the total number of greyhounds competing one time or more included in this survey were 378,584. This means that the injury ratio is 0.2%. This number of injuries is miniscule, when compared to figures from the field of human sports medicine. Sports Injuries Online, a website developed to provide sports medicine information, reports that sports injuries are the leading cause of unintentional injury in children and youth and peak at 42% annually for people aged 15 to 24. They also report that sport Injuries represent a significant public health concern accounting for 23% of all traumas. When a comparison is made between human athletes and canine athletes, it shows that Greyhound racing is a very safe sport."
Every subsequent study of greyhound injury rates since then, has confirmed Bloomberg and Duggers findings."
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