A LYNEHAM Greyhound charity is appealing for dog lovers to take in abandoned greyhounds in desperate need of a home.

The Greyhound and Lurcher Welfare Rescue currently has four greyhounds and one lurcher to re-home and is appealing to members of the public who think they can offer the animals a loving home to contact them.

Trustee Sarah Cunningham, 27, of St Andrew’s Ridge, said: “It shouldn’t be hard to re-home these pets but there are quite a few misconceptions about them –people think they need lots of walking and they are quite vicious dogs, but the majority are far from it.

“They don’t get in the way like other dogs, they have never really had any comforts in their lives before so when they are given a loving home they absolutely love it and really settle in.”

Sarah, who owns two lurchers named Santa and Bruce, has been involved with the charity for two years.

“Greyhounds and lurchers make absolutely fabulous pets,” she said.

“Lurchers need a tiny bit more walking than greyhounds because they are normally used for long days of hunting and they have a bit more endurance, whereas with greyhounds, they tend to have short bursts of speed.”

GLWR re-homes greyhounds all over the UK and prospective owners get the chance to visit their dog before they take them home.

The charity said it is particularly difficult to home black male greyhounds.

Sarah said: “Nobody seems to want the black boys, I think it is just down to their appearance and people generally don’t want black dogs. As a rule, boys are harder to re-home than the girls anyway so we have got our work cut out at the moment with two black boys.

“We always do home checks before homing the dogs, we like to be sure that they are going to a good home because you do fall in love with them so quickly and we don’t want them to go anywhere that isn’t quite right.”