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THREE UNFORGETTABLE THINGS. By Filippo Soresi Bordini

So many thoughts milling around in my head, so many heartfelt emotions, so many shivers running up and down my spine, so many faces, so many hands, so many hugs, so much sharing, so many voices… So many things about the Manchester demo are unforgettable, but for those who have the patience to read on, I would like to mention three: 1) The police: I don’t know, but the British must be profoundly different from us, if they can trust the people who organise a demo and just send in 7 policemen for 350 people. It was amazing, we were about 5 metres away from where the taxis were offloading those sad excuses for human beings, there was nothing between them and us, no barriers, no police cordons, nothing. There were about 2 tense moments, the first when some idiots decided to pass through the crowd of demonstrators and shortly afterwards the wife of one of the trainers decided to retrace her steps to make some abusive gestures. Someone stepped forward, the husband led her away, and the policemen politely asked everyone to step back, and thanked them. The second moment, which happened right in front of me, was when two young trainers, just before getting out of the car, started to give us the finger and shake it at us with a mocking grin, then once they’d got out, still looking at us but without smiling anymore, they started shouting “FUCK OFF!” At that point some of the protesters started to advance again, about ten in all, and I thought “all hell will break loose now”. But what did the policeman who was between us and that wanker do? He turned around, and with his back to us – who were in theory the dangerous rabble rousers – grabbed the idiot roughly, took him into a corner, and didn’t just send him into the hotel, oh no, but gave him a thorough telling off, after which the bloke went into the hotel with his head bowed, without so much as an upward glance. Well…I felt looked after; obviously one policeman wouldn’t have been able to stop us all and so that was probably the right and maybe the only thing to do, but from that moment on nothing else happened, despite further provocations, and I no longer felt that anything would. There was not a single incident that whole day, without barriers, or police cordons, or weapons (at least not that I could see), not even a single idiot throwing a coin or even just eggs. Nothing at all. Everyone was really great. The policemen would often speak with the protesters, and Michael James would stress the need to be respectful of public order, so as not to give the industry any excuse to ruin the message of the demonstration, reminding us that he knew very well the type of scum he was referring to. He would also speak with the policemen quite often, and their body language was always friendly. And there are those who swear that one of them had tears in his eyes, while he was listening attentively to one of the speeches. 2) The minute’s silence: Before the formal speeches started it was like a hell-pit, when the bouts of chanting in unison kicked off my legs would shake, I was shouting at the top of my voice as loud as I could, I was so moved the tears were running down my face, and I thought I couldn’t possibly feel any more. How wrong I was. Even during the speeches, when the trainers arrived the people would spontaneously shout “SHAME ON YOU!” “BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!” “MURDERERS!” “SCUM!” Then Rita James at the end of her speech asked for a minute’s silence to remember the victims of this vile industry, the thousands and thousands of dead greyhounds. Suddenly not a single shout was heard, not a breath. Even the cars that had been honking more or less continuously as they passed by were inexplicably silent, in that moment. I hugged my girlfriend, and cried thinking about Valentina who was killed when she was pregnant and found rotting in the open; Snip Nua who was used for a BBC programme made to promote greyhound racing and who was dead even before the programme was aired, euthanised for a hock injury; the dogs found in Limerick with their heads smashed, the unnamed dead; all the dogs who died at the tracks that we have heard about in these last two years; those who fell and were just classified as “did not finish the race” which nearly always means they were killed after 5 minutes; Ghigo who they didn’t even allow to live once he’d been adopted. And who knows how many others I thought about without even knowing that they had ever existed, just numbers that were once lives. I looked around and saw faces which must have looked like mine, with dark expressions, tears streaming down frozen cheeks, looks that spoke a thousand words without making a noise. But the thing that really took your breath away was the silence. Absolute, painful, respectful. I swear I could hear my breath and the beating of my own heart. Even when some trainers passed by during that one full minute, which nobody wanted to interrupt, no one made a sound. It was a moment of grief, respect, sharing, closeness, solidarity, and the will to do everything possible to end greyhound racing. But more than anything it was a tribute to the dogs who died because of the racing industry, those whose bodies were recovered, those whose names we learned, and the many thousands who died and who will continue to die without a name, without a mention. Once again, numbers that were – and are – lives. A deafening silence, of a kind that I had never heard before, a silence that felt like it would make me explode, impossible to contain. A silence that I will never forget. 3) The message of the demonstration: The thing that will always stay with me is the message this demo gave me. It’s essential to educate the public about racing, the general public as well as people who haven’t the faintest idea what the racing industry really is, and those who adopt greyhounds. But not by just showing nice pictures of dogs on sofas, pictures that often come from the racing industry itself, like Trojan horses put together by the associations that collaborate with it, who keep silent about the abuses and point out how their dogs are safe thanks to the contributions of the industry. These associations avoid mentioning how those few dogs spared by the industry, on which they spend a bit of small change in order to rid themselves of them in an alternative way, are used to promote and maintain a front which allows many people to go to the tracks without the slightest idea of what they are doing. The day before, we had gone to stand outside Manchester’s greyhound racetrack, the largest and oldest in Great Britain, the place where everything started. One woman, on hearing what we told her, and when we asked her if she knew what went on in there, answered “I just want to have a night out”. There were many like her, even with small children. Many, many women were there, too many to be aware of what they were actually doing. The message of the demo is that educating people is not stuffing their heads with photos of dogs living happily after racing like some groups do, even some Italian groups, who collaborate with the industry, which often uses them as examples of how much they love their dogs. It’s about making people understand that when they decide to spend an evening out at the tracks, maybe even without betting but just having a cheap meal, or holding a stag night (cost: £7 all in), or putting a couple of cheap bets “on the dogs”, they are directly or indirectly supporting a bloody industry that kills thousands of greyhounds each year, and if it doesn’t kill them it forces them to live horrible lives. The only way to do it is to show them the truth. The only way to ensure the protesters are not alone is to keep showing people the truth that reaches us from countries where greyhound racing still exists. Even if it means criticising organisations that claim to save lives, people who are considered ‘angels’ but who, in order to save ‘their’ dogs, indirectly sacrifice many others; and by showing how the only way to stop all this is NOT just to adopt dogs any old way, no matter how. When it’s not done in the right way, it can contribute to the loss of thousands of lives. The only ones who can show us the right way are those who see directly how much damage is done by this policy of fake neutrality which kills, kills and kills again thousands of dogs while saving a few dozen of them. They showed us the way on Sunday 26th January 2014, and it’s called the Truth. The cold, painful, awful but simple Truth. by Filippo Soresi Bordini Filippo Soresi Bordini is an Italian vet who joined the protest as an independent observer. translated by Isobel Deeley

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Presidente e socio fondatore di Pet levrieri dalla data di fondazione. Nella vita svolge la professione di psicologa e psicoterapeuta e di formatrice. E’ laureata in filosofia e in psicologia. Per crescita personale si è formata e diplomata come educatrice cinofila presso la scuola SIUA. Ha svolto il corso professionalizzante per la gestione della ricerca e del soccorso di animali smarriti, organizzato da Pet Detective. Ha iniziato a scoprire quello che accade ai greyhound nel racing in seguito all’adozione della sua prima grey, Silky, nel 2008. Da qui il suo impegno civile antiracing e anticaccia in difesa dei greyhound, dei galgo e dei lurcher. Sposata con Massimo Greco, altro socio fondatore di Pet levrieri, condivide con lui questo impegno.

Insieme condividono la loro vita con un gruppo di levrieri rescue e una segugia. Svolge questo ruolo in maniera totalmente gratuita.

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Vice presidente di Pet levrieri. Nella vita è Direttore delle Risorse Umane di una multinazionale del settore IT. 
Per passione personale nel 2020 ha conseguito il titolo di educatore cinofilo presso la scuola cinofila Il Mio Cane.
Ha partecipato al corso di gestione della ricerca e del soccorso di animali smarriti organizzato da Pet Detective.
Nel marzo 2014 adotta “per caso” Sandy, greyhound irlandese, e scopre la dura realtà dei levrieri sfruttati nelle corse e nella caccia decidendo così di impegnarsi concretamente nell’Associazione.
Coordina il gruppo di ricerca dei levrieri smarriti, è membro del Gruppo Adozioni e partecipa come portavoce di Pet levrieri ad eventi di informazione e divulgazione delle attività dell’associazione. 
Vive tra Milano e la Valsassina con il marito Massimiliano, ha due figli ormai adulti, Giorgia e Marco, e tre lurcher irlandesi: Robin, Coco e Lucy – e Sandy sempre nel cuore.
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Vice Presidente e socio fondatore di Pet levrieri, laureata in scienze politiche internazionali, gestisce un’impresa di consulenze turistiche. In Pet Levrieri si occupa in particolare delle relazioni con la Spagna e dei profili dei galgo e si reca più volte all’anno nei rifugi spagnoli per conoscere i cani e stilarne i profili. Fa parte del team che amministra sito e pagine Fb dell’associazione.
Ha adottato la galga Debra nel 2011. Venire a contatto con la realtà dei levrieri rescue l’ha spinta ad approfondire il discorso e a impegnarsi attivamente a favore dei grey, galgo e lurcher sfruttati e maltrattati in tutto il mondo. Oltre a Debra vive con due cani meticci, salvati da situazioni di abbandono.
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Membro del consiglio direttivo e socio fondatore di Per levrieri, dove si occupa dell’organizzazione logistica degli eventi e del merchandising. Nella vita è titolare di un laboratorio odontotecnico dal 1990. Da sempre appassionato di cani, il suo primo cane è stato un setter irlandese. Sposato con Marianna Capurso, anche lei socia fondatrice di Pet levrieri, condivide con lei l’impegno antirancing e anticaccia in difesa dei levrieri. Accanto al presidente di Pet levrieri, ha partecipato alla prima conferenza mondiale sui greyhound in Florida nel 2016. Ha partecipato a molti corsi organizzati da Think Dog e Siua. Perle è stata la sua prima greyhound. Nella sua vita ora ci sono Peig e Inta, due lurcher, e Karim, greyhound salvato dal cinodromo di Macao, e Ricky, un pinscher, che è la mascotte di tutto il gruppo. Svolge i suoi incarichi in Pet levrieri in maniera totalmente gratuita.

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Membro del consiglio direttivo di Pet levrieri. Nella vita è una pasticciera. Dal 2014 a seguito dell’adozione di Rosie, una greyhound irlandese ha conosciuto la realtà dello sfruttamento dei levrieri. Da qui l’impegno in associazione. Coordina il gruppo facebook di Pet levrieri, gestisce il canale istituzionale Twitter, ed è membro del gruppo adozioni. Condivide la vita con il compagno Stefano, socio e volontario di Pet levrieri, James greyhound salvato in Irlanda e Jasmine greyhound sopravvissuta al cinodromo di Macao, nel cuore portano Rosie e Mags greyhound salvate in Irlanda. Svolge i suoi incarichi in Pet levrieri in maniera totalmente gratuita.

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Socio fondatore di Pet levrieri, si è occupato in associazione, a titolo puramente gratuito, di trasporti, rapporti con le autorità veterinarie e della comunicazione esterna, curando numerosi articoli sulla situazione dei greyhound e dei galgo nel mondo. Ha partecipato a numerose manifestazioni antiracing in Irlanda e Gran Bretagna. Dal 2022 fa parte del Board di GREY2K USA Worldwide, la più importante organizzazione antiracing mondiale. 
Laureato in filosofia e in Psicologia della comunicazione, insegna filosofia e storia nella scuola superiore di secondo grado; per crescita personale si è formato e diplomato come educatore cinofilo presso la scuola SIUA. 
Appassionato di musica, in particolare rock e irlandese, dal 2008 condivide le sue giornate, insieme alla moglie Stefania Traini, con levrieri rescue e un “pizzico” di segugi. Perché nella varietà si fanno più esperienze.
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Membro del consiglio direttivo di Pet Levrieri.
Dopo il liceo linguistico inizia a lavorare in banca ma dopo la nascita della terza figlia decide di volersi dedicare esclusivamente alla sua numerosa famiglia.
Il suo primo cane è stato Otello, un mix labrador-alano, poi è arrivata Gina, un bovaro svizzero.
Viene a conoscenza dello sfruttamento dei levrieri per caso attraverso un articolo trovato in rete e nel novembre 2015 partecipa ad un arrivo di Galgo di Pet Levrieri. Christa, una galga ancora senza famiglia, si butta tra le sue braccia per farsi coccolare. Dieci giorni dopo andrà a prenderla presso la famiglia foster e la porterà a casa. Da questo incontro speciale nasce il suo impegno concreto all’interno dell’Associazione.
Fa parte del gruppo adozioni e si occupa prevalentemente delle richieste estere (Svizzera, Austria, Germania).
A settembre 2018 si reca, insieme a Stefania Traini, a Macau per fotografare e stilare i profili dei cani che verranno in Italia. Qui, incrocia lo sguardo di Tamoko, che decide di adottare appena sarà pronto per il volo che lo porterà a Milano.
Vive a Lugano, Svizzera, con il marito Andrea e i figli Giulia, Alyssa, Cecilia e Tommaso. Membri della numerosa famiglia, oltre a Tamoko, sono anche Harry e Bob, lurcher irlandesi e Paco un meticcio salvato dalle strade di Napoli.
Ama trascorrere le giornate tra montagne e boschi oppure con un bel libro in mano.
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