At one point in this documentary about greyhound racing, an interviewee describes it as a fundamentally working-class sport, and it’s hard to argue with that. And like so many British working-class pleasures and pursuits, shifting tastes and the relentless march of gentrification have seen its popularity wane substantially since heydays past. This frisky film explores the canine-centric milieu with affection and respect – but, laudably, it also makes room, about halfway through its runtime, for the case against racing as articulated by several animal rights activists who decry the conditions in which some dogs are raised, the practice of euthanising animals deemed no longer viable for racing, and the injury risks racing itself poses.
Naturally, the trainers, breeders and owners we meet…
At one point in this documentary about greyhound racing, an interviewee describes it as a fundamentally working-class sport, and it’s hard to argue with that. And like so many British working-class pleasures and pursuits, shifting tastes and the relentless march of gentrification have seen its popularity wane substantially since heydays past. This frisky film explores the canine-centric milieu with affection and respect – but, laudably, it also makes room, about halfway through its runtime, for the case against racing as articulated by several animal rights activists who decry the conditions in which some dogs are raised, the practice of euthanising animals deemed no longer viable for racing, and the injury risks racing itself poses.
Naturally, the trainers, breeders and owners we meet here violently disagree with these critiques. It’s to director Greg Cruttwell’s credit that he gives the subjects time to voice the point-counterpoint around these arguments. Some, like garrulous Scottish trainer Rab McNair, will have absolutely no truck with the activists’ points, insisting that they are grounded in ignorance of how well the dogs are treated. All the animals we see here look pretty bright-eyed and waggy-tailed, although some of the kennel spaces we see them hanging out in look a little on the spartan side; but who knows, this is hardly a meaningfully large enough sample to judge by. Encouragingly, one pro-racing speaker acknowledges that recent exposés of poor treatment in the industry, such as RTÉ documentary Greyhounds Running for Their Lives and reports in the Guardian, have compelled breeders and the sport in general to clean up their act significantly.
Assessed purely as a work of film-making, Going to the Dogs is competent if repetitive, playing at times like one long montage often set to jaunty vintage reggae tunes; but it certainly gets across the boozy romanticism of the sport, made all the more poignant by the fact that it’s clearly in decline in terms of popularity. Above all, the film gets across how lovable and sweet greyhounds are, creatures capable of running 40 miles an hour but who love to sleep 23 hours a day.