A four-year-old whippet from Italy, Miuccia (‘Little Maria’), won the best in show championship at last week’s Crufts dog show in Birmingham.

She beat 18,000 dogs from around the world to claim the top award, and is the first Italian dog to do so.

Whippets belong to a genre of dogs known as sighthounds, or gazehounds, along with breeds such as greyhounds, salukis and Afghan hounds.

These dogs specialise (or at least their ancestors did) in pursuing prey, keeping it in sight, and overpowering it with their great speed and agility. They typically have flexible backs, long legs, larger than average hearts, and wiry bodies – they are the athletes of the dog world.

A typical sighthound has a lean, light head which is dolichocephalic as opposed to brachycephalic (short-headed). As such, they have a wide field of vision – again, a useful characteristic in a hunting dog.

Greyhounds have hit the headlines in the last few days as a result of the Welsh parliament announcing plans to ban greyhound racing on the grounds of animal welfare.

The ban follows cross-party talks, a government consultation and a petition that attracted 35,000 signatures. An implementation group will now flesh out proposals and learn from other countries, not least New Zealand which banned greyhound racing last December.

Charities such as the Dogs Trust and the RSPCA have been campaigning for years for a greyhound racing ban across the UK, but there seems little sign that other UK countries will follow the Welsh lead.

So, is greyhound racing a cruel sport?

The statistics speak for themselves: the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), which regulates the industry, issued data that shows that more than 2,700 greyhounds died and more than 26,500 injuries were recorded between 2018 and 2023.

This ‘attrition’ rate is due to the fact that the dogs do not run in lanes, and they race at great speed (more than 40 miles per hour) in pursuit of a mechanical lure around oval shaped tracks. The sharp bends on these tracks put enormous strain on the dogs’ joints, and broken or fractured legs are not uncommon.

There is also grave concern over many greyhound breeding and training establishments, where puppies are not properly socialised and where dogs live in barren pens with very little enrichment.

The GBGB’s data shows that around 90% of greyhounds are no longer racing by the time they reach five, and that an average of 6,000 dogs leave the licensed industry every year.

Although greyhounds can generally transition into becoming good pets, albeit with a strong prey drive, there are a lot of unwanted dogs that need to be rehomed.

- The MSPCA is trying to find a home for beautiful Star, who is half greyhound and half husky. She’s still only six months old and hasn’t been near a race track, but she is true to type and enjoys stretching her lovely long legs and will chase any cat that crosses her path.

Her previous owners simply underestimated the time and energy they would need to train a puppy, but Star is fully house-trained and she obeys basic commands.

She is also happy to travel in a car, and she has lived with children. Her future training will need to focus on her recall and developing good manners – but, at the end of the day she is just an excitable young dog, full of beans, who has lots to learn about life.

If you think you could be part of her life, please compete a home finder questionnaire which can be found on the MSPCA’s website, or contact the kennels team on kennels@manxspca.com.