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The public choose not to go to it. That is a clear distinction.

I come back to the point that the issue is the individual who holds the animal as opposed to the pastime itself and to the point that Mark Ruskell made, about which he and I have spoken, about finding a method of allowing people who genuinely love their dogs and want to race them safely—they do not want anything to happen to them—to continue without completely banning the sport. Those people do love their dogs.

I do not know whether we will come back to that issue. I might come back—

Okay. You may have given a lot of the answers in your report, but unfortunately we only had it about 20 minutes before the meeting. We will have to digest it before we can come back to you.

They are sight animals and they are all looking at one lure. Has any work been done on putting two lures on to the same race, to spread out the field?

I understand why the lure is on the inside or the outside of the track. My point is that, because they are sight animals, there is bunching at particular corners at high speed, as you referenced. That bunching will happen because they are all looking at the same lure. Has any work been done on double lures?

Okay. You talk about the trajectory of the industry going downhill—it is beginning to decline. Are there distinct welfare risks to animals from the industry declining? That is, if the industry is declining, does that pose a welfare risk to the animals that are currently in the system?

There is always the possibility that an individual who goes into a pastime, whether it is sheepdog trials or greyhound racing, will do a poor job of looking after the animal. Does that require the banning of the pastime?

However, it is public. You can go there, pay your money and walk through the door, so the public can go.

Forgive me if it appeared that I was trying to demonise one side against the other; I am not. I am purely trying to get an understanding of why there is an issue about dogs racing. There clearly is an issue, because we have people petitioning to get it banned. I know, having worked with dogs my entire life, the care and attention and everything else that is put into that. Why would you then want to do something that will make that dog ill, hurt or whatever else? Working as a sheep farmer, I have had dogs killed on the farm. I understand that these things happen, but why is there a need to stop greyhound racing when people are so passionate about looking after their animals in the way that you tell me they are? Where does that issue come from?

When you say, “tightening the home market,” are you talking about reducing production?