ROCCO (named for racing as On The Dot)
Sex/colour: Male Black
D.O.B: 19.12.2003
Last recorded owner: Mr. Billy Barker
Last recorded trainer: Mr. F Barker
Races contended: 5
Stadium: Mildenhall
Last recorded race: 11.10.2005
Came to AfG: March 2007
ROCCO (firstly named Jock by AfG .. renamed Rocco by adopters).
Rocco was brought to the attention of AfG when advertised for free in a
local free ad paper.
Two of our supporters contacted the advertiser and quickly made
arrangement to pick Rocco up as we had a foster home available.
When they arrived they were shocked to also see a black female Greyhound
in a room in the womans house which had been converted into a ‘whelping
room’ where the poor Greyhound was housed with a litter of 7 puppies.
She had acquired the two Greyhounds free together from their racing owner.
Of course another case of irresponsible off loading of his unwanted
Greyhounds.
It is no ‘accident’ knowing if you have an un neutered male and female
Greyhound, where the female comes into season and they are not kept
separate, the outcome of a mating producing puppies is inevitable.
Strange that! as once the woman was happy Rocco was going, she offered
our supporters a puppy for £100!! ( of course, she was unaware the
couple who took Rocco were connected to AfG and thankfully they got as
much information as they could whilst there, as to how this woman had
acquired the two Greyhounds).
The woman stated she would never breed puppies again as it was hard work
and was finding it hard to sell them.
Luckily for now, Rocco was safe.
After a short time settling into his foster home and gaining good body
condition, Rocco was neutered.
ROCCO proved to be a gentle happy hound and got on very well with all
other dogs on his walks.
We had previously met a family at one of our events who would like to
adopt a greyhound but had an autistic son, however, the son had a strong
afflilation with dogs.
Once we did a homecheck, it was decided ROCCO would be the perfect dog
for the family.
Needless to say, Rocco settled into his forever home very well and
became a constant close companion to their son.
He enjoyed his freedom in a big garden and many walks, especially on the
nearby beach.
A life he so deserved after all he had been through and at only 4 years
of age.
After bringing Rocco to safety, we were not likely to forget about the
female Greyhound and her pups.
We were made aware the same woman who advertised Rocco for free was in
fact advertising Greyhound puppies for £100 each in the free ads paper.
Luckily 3 months later, we were made aware she was advertising the
mother of the pups for free (obviously still un neutered) we had no
available foster carers at the time but made another rescue aware who
were able to take her.
They traced her history ( racing name: Druminboy Pretty, D.O.B:
21.07.2002 her 63rd and last race was at Yarmouth 08.02.2006 last
registered trainer: Master Stephen Hartigan).
As with previous Greyhounds brought to the attention of AfG, many being
offloaded free through adverts in a local free ads paper, we along with
other rescues,noticed several were traced back to another familiar name,
this time a Greyhound trainer attached to Yarmouth, Ann Cossey from
North Walsham, who worked as a ‘middle agent’ for owners and trainers
wanting to offload their unwanted Greyhounds quickly.
We dread to think what became of the ones AfG and other rescues were not
made aware of.
Photos below, show Rocco at his foster home enjoying the sunshine.
Photo above is Rocco featured on an AfG calendar, photoed by Greyhound
Watch.
