A small self-funded Greyhound re-homing charity based in Greater Manchester has successfully adopted and re-homed over 370 ex-racing Greyhounds.
Makants are a self-funded greyhound rescue centre, based in Tyldesley. The charity specialise in rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing ex-racing Greyhounds.
Founded by Siobhan Hoppley in December 2013 they have successfully re-homed over 370 dogs. The organisation is ran by a team of hard-working volunteers who maintain and ensure the health and re-homing of the Greyhounds.
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Once Greyhounds are retired from racing, charities such as Makants Greyhound Rescue step in and provide love and care, with the long-term aim of finding homes for many of these dogs.
The dogs spend time with foster families as part of their re-homing process, where they experience everyday situations and become accustomed to living in a family home.
Being one of few Greyhound charities in Greater Manchester, Makants require a large number of volunteers and helpers. Their team assists with re-homing checks, fundraising, administration duties including social media, fostering and of course, daily dog-walking. The fundraisers work tirelessly in all weathers each weekend, all year round to raise funds for the rescue.
Fostering volunteer, Kay said:
“You do tend to get a little bit attached to odd ones.
“I take them home for weekends and that just gets them used to being in houses and lets them socialise in different environments, just away from the kennels really”.
The charity relies solely on donations and money raised from their fundraising events to fund the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of retired and injured greyhounds. Donations come in all different shapes and sizes, from paintings and handbags to carpet and cat-food. The charity uses social media to auction these donations and often do mid-week interactive fundraisers on their Facebook page.
The charity can accommodate 15 dogs in their kennels however, they can stretch this number to 19 using their ‘overflow’ kennels during busy times. The dogs at the kennels differentiate in age, the youngest pup at the kennels is only 18 months and the oldest is nine.
A number of the dogs at the shelter have been subject to abuse and neglect during their racing carers and struggle to trust anything or anyone. It is the jobs of the fostering/re-homing volunteers to get these dogs confident and happy again, but it is by no means an easy process.
All ex-racing Greyhounds have National Greyhound Identification Numbers tattooed in their left ear. These tattoos uniquely identify each dog, no two racers have the same number.
The UK currently sees approximately 15,000 Greyhounds being kept for racing and figures indicate that almost 1,000 died from racing last year, of which, many were put down trackside due to injuries. On average greyhounds stop racing around 3 years old and many are put-down as they are deemed ‘no longer valuable’. Those who are not put-down are rescued and adopted by charities and organisations such as the Makants greyhound rescue.
Racing fans out there will know that Salford used to have it’s own Greyhound racing track. Situated on Cromwell Road, Lower Broughton the Albion Greyhound Racecourse closed in 1976. The track first opened in April 1928 and shared its venue with Stock car racing and Speedway.
The Genting Casino now sits on-top-of the old race track and Greyhound Drive sits only a few roads away from the site. The large grass-area across the road from the casino once was Salfords Horse racing track which closed in the 1960’s.
Housing associated with Salford Council now covers the site with the street names being named after dogs. For example, Greyhound Drive, Collie Avenue, Basset Avenue and Cairn Drive.
“You help more than Greys. You also bring a sense of community back which is sadly missing in a lot of areas”.
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