Wednesday 16th July 2008 marks the second anniversary of the ‘Seaham Slaughter’ exposure by The Sunday Times, exposing the killing of an estimated 10,000 greyhounds by David Smith on the North East coast of England.
Four days earlier, on Wednesday 12th July, a beautiful summers morning, Clash Nitro aged 2 years and 9 months and Rent A Flyer, even younger at 2 years and 2 months were taken to Seaham.
Unaware of their fate, they showed no resistance when lead by David Smith to the slaughtering shed. Rent A Flyer only glancing back when alerted by the camera shutter of the undercover photographer.
We will never know who had to watch his kennel mate being slaughtered and then endure the fear of knowing this was also to be his impending death.
We will never know if Smith executed his ‘Captive Bolt Pistol’ effectively, designed only to stun and not kill outright.
We will never know the names of the estimated 10,000 greyhounds Smith buried alive in the burning lime.
What we do know is that there were 12,819 greyhounds exported from Ireland last year, just like Clash Nitro and Rent A Flyer, all trained to perform and tragically, just waiting, unbeknown to them, to be raced to death for the price of a bet.
Please take a moment of your time and light two candles, one for each of these innocent boys and reflect on the suffering they endured at the hands of Smith.

'Seaham Slaughter'
This is the last race I’ll ever run
I can see by his face, ‘cos I haven't won
I can see hate in his eyes, that’s no lie
Tomorrow’s my last day, it’s then I must die
This is my fate as a running hound
Bolt gun to the head, then a hole in the ground
Please don’t forget me, don’t let it be in vain
All this misery, all this pain
Keep asking the question, the reason why
At two years old, I had to die
(the writer wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal from the racing industry)