My wife and I live in the beautiful North Nofolk coast area of the UK.

We've been pet lovers for most of our lives.  We have an African grey parrot and two ex-racing Greyhounds. 
 
In the past we have had an aquatic business with over 120 aquariums have owned and loved 3 Great Danes.

When our last Dane died in 2007, we decided to contact our local Greyhound rescue centre and subsequently took delivery of two emaciated and traumatised greys.
Pingu and Slinky made themselves at home quite quickly and now, 16 months on, are totally different dogs.

The Racing Greyhounds life is generally not a happy one, although owners who race their Greyhounds do vary in the amount of care and compassion they show to their dogs. 

The trouble stems from the simple economics of dog racing.  Basically, a dog can race until it's around 6 years of age.  Many retire earlier or never get beyond initial training for oner reason or another.  Injury, joint weakness or a lack of the essential "prey drive" are the usual reasons.

As Greyhounds can live until they are 12 to 14 this obviously presents a problem for the racing kennel.  The retired dogs have to go; although some small kennels keep their dogs as pets this is not an option for the larger operations.  The method of disposal of thousands of dogs each year is the real problem area.

Many dogs are re-homed and live out their live just like any other pet dog.  Unfortunately many are simply destroyed, not always humanely.  Some are understood to be shipped to the far east for the table.  Some unfortunates are sent to Spain for hunting and can meet a dreadful end when the hunting season is over.  It's apparently cheaper to get fresh dogs each year rather than feed and care for them between hunting seasons.

The above is the reason we switched to Greyhounds rather than our usual Great Daness.

This turned into a bit of a rant, but I'm sure you can understand why.