Greyhound Rescue Wales took in about 100 dogs last year

Greyhound Rescue Wales said its volunteers once faced hostility from the racing fraternity but they were now working together with track owners.

The charity staged its annual dog show at the track in Swansea on Monday.

Most of the dogs on show were rescued or rehoused after no longer being fit to race through age or injury.

They don't want the dogs once they can't race - they just want them as a money making commodity name here

Gwyneth Anthony, who has been a rescue volunteer for eight years and has greyhounds and a lurcher, said: "Over the last few years there has been a lot more cooperation.

"When we first started to go to the dog tracks we could feel some people starring daggers at us but now they have got to know us and we have got to know them.

"We have built up a wonderful with the track at Fforestfach (Swansea) and at Ystrad Mynyach where they raise a lot of money for us."

She said some owners with dogs no longer fit for racing now approach the charity to help get them rehoused and also helped support Greyhound Rescue financially.

"Sadly you still get cases like Last Hope," she said.

Last Hope was found with its ears cut off and barely alive

That case sparked national publicity last year when its owner Andrew Gough was jailed for six-months after the animal had its ears cut off and was left for dead by a footpath on Fochriw Mountain, near Merthyr Tydfil.

"They don't want the dogs once they can't race - even if they pups that can't go on the track - they just want them as a money making commodity," said Ms Anthony.

"We took in about 100 dogs last year but now owners will phone and ask us and if we don't have the room will look after them until we can take them.

"It is nowhere near as bad as it was years ago.

"People have also come to come to realise greyhounds make wonderful pets. I have three. A pup, a greyhound who was injured and could no longer race and a lurcher who was found in a shed in Gower.

"He was just fed on scraps and was very thin when we first had him. We spent hours just talking to him because he was so nervous. He's a lot better although is still nervous when people make a fuss of him."