The sleek, elegant and majestic Greyhound was one of the first dogs to be domesticated by man. The dogs you see today have changed very little from those pictured on the walls of the ancient tombs of the Egyptian Pharaohs. The breed spread throughout Africa and Asia and first appeared in this country with the arrival of the Celts in approximately the 5th Century BCE.
The Greyhound’s incredible speed and hunting ability made it a valued status symbol it was so highly thought of that the punishment for a person found to have killed one was the same as that for murder of a human. There was even a medieval law passed forbidding poor people from owning them.
After many centuries in this privileged position, the last century has sadly seen the role of the Greyhound take a drastic turn for the worse.