Adoption - why so many lurchers/greyhounds?

[Kermit power]

We're looking at adopting a dog at the moment, and I've noticed that at both our local centres, there seems to be a huge proportion of lurchers and greyhounds.

Apparently many of the greyhounds are retired racers, but I can't figure out why there would be so many lurchers?

Are they unexpectedly difficult to look after or something?

[Kermit power]

Do they have the same sort of playfulness as something like a Border Collie or Spaniel?

[Kermit power]

I just don't get that sort of thing...

I have absolutely no qualms about eating meat, killing rabbits, etc, but there's just something about a dog that even though they can of course be working animals, to me they could never just be working animals.

[Kermit power]

Disaster has struck my plans.

I had no idea how bloody expensive fencing was! It looks like it would cost £2k+ to get 6' fencing round our garden, which is a non-starter at the moment, and apparently rescue centres tend not to let dogs go to homes without a fully enclosed garden.

Seriously frustrating, given that I work from home all the time, so wouldn't ever need to leave the dog out in the garden unaccompanied anyway. I presume that rescue centres don't expect adopters to never let their dogs off the lead in a park or wherever, so why the fuss about a back garden if there's someone there all the time with the dog anyway???

[Kermit power]

Initial measurement puts the whole garden at roughly 25 panels, and average pricing seems to be around £100 fitted per panel.

I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of rescue centres whether a 400 square foot enclosure of roughly half lawn, half decking would be acceptable, as existing fencing, house & garage wall would bring that down to around £500.