Greyhound Racing - Oh Boy (Part 1)
By Larry Meiners
I have become captivated by the breed of dog called Greyhound. Living with several Greyhounds for many months hopelessly sent me down the path of advocacy. My research included reading many Greyhound history, breeding, racing and adoption books and endlessly surfing the Internet for yet more information. I must admit that many of my questions about Greyhound Racing and their treatment are still unanswered but I am on a mission to seek out the answers. Also, I must be up-front and say that although legal, I personally don't like the racing of Greyhounds for profit as it exists today.
The central arguments or issues in the greyt Greyhound debate are:
1) Are Greyhounds mistreated and abused as they are bred and raced for profit?
2) Are Greyhounds killed if they are not fast enough, not trainable for racing or become injured?
Pro-racing books, organizations and websites say all is well with Greyhound Racing and the dogs are treated fine. They say the dogs love to race and prefer to live in a square kennel cage for 22 hours a day.
Against-racing books, organizations and websites say all is not well within the Greyhound Racing industry. They say dogs are mistreated and many are killed when unable to race. They say that it is unethical to keep a dog in a cage for 22 hours a day.
Racing Greyhound breeders and race teams do the math. Greyhounds that race and win for 1-5 years show business profits. Injured Greyhounds and slow dogs don't produce income and consume expenses (food and board) and therefore are expendable. Besides the dogs given to adoption agencies, what happens to the dogs that are no longer racing and the ones that are culled from the breeding farms?
Overbreeding has been cited as a reason many healthy dogs are killed. If more are bred in search of faster and faster dogs, this means too many are born that will be killed because they are simply not fast enough. It's a bell-curve and the dogs on the bottom left of the graph are profit-eaters, not profit-generators. What happens to all of the profit-eaters?
Injury is another reason dogs lives can be terminated. When a racing Greyhound is injured, the options seem to be; it can be kept for breeding purposes; given to an adoption group; killed. If an injured dog is a marginal performer and the injury prevents the dog from further racing, are some of these dogs killed? Also, many adoption groups say they must raise donations to pay for expensive surgeries for injured Greyhounds that are delivered to them by breeders and race groups. Adoption groups tend not to be vocal about many issues regarding Greyhound Racing out of fear they may be banned by breeders and race teams from receiving dogs for adoption.
As part of my research, I recently visited a Greyhound Race Track (I didn't place any bets). In my attempt to seek answers regarding this debate, all sides must ultimately be heard. One thing I observed is when the dogs are placed in their starting gate stalls, they cry, howl, whine and bark. Why does this make me think maybe the dogs are not all that crazy to be racing?
Talking to some of the employees at the track, they said that near-by Las Vegas-style gambling casinos were hurting their business. A check of that state's Greyhound Track revenues on their Internet site backed up this claim. Apparently, more and more of the wagering public would rather be playing the one-armed bandits than betting on four-legged hounds. Many tracks are trying to get various state's permission to add video poker and other games to stem the tide of lost customers. Obviously, Racing opponents are requesting that the states not allow this in hopes of seeing these tracks closed by lack of profits.
As this debate is discussed the races go on, the breeding continues and both sides line up to face each other. Can a nation's depth of character be measured by its treatment of docile animals? If so, it seems the world's nations may need a bit more character development.
Please support your local Greyhound adoption group with your time as a volunteer, with your donated items so they may be auctioned for operating funds and with cash donations. Greyhounds are a regal breed that was once the exclusive domain of the privileged nobles. The great kings of Egypt sensed the grand soul of the Greyhound and adorned their ornaments and tombs with their likeness. Greyhounds are superb athletes and a human's best friend. Check out this greyt breed and please help save an Ex-Racing Greyhound.
Copyright © 2003 Larry Meiners All Rights Reserved