This morning Ted sent me a link to a post on the Humane Society blog about greyhound legislation. That sounds boring, but we adopted an ex-racing greyhound a few years ago, so we follow most greyhound stories in the media. Apparently, on January 29th, the people of Miami-Dade County in Florida will be voting on whether or not to allow Vegas-style slot machines to be placed at greyhound racing tracks. You might be thinking, gambling is gambling, right? The thing is that greyhound racing isn’t all that profitable, and it results in untold abuses and thousands of greyhound deaths a year. But slot machines ARE profitable, and this source of revenue would bring life back to an otherwise-dying industry.
People who own greyhounds can get kind of preachy about it, but that fact is that greyhound racing sucks. Tons of puppies are born each year in the hopes of making better racers, and any puppy that doesn’t show promise is culled, i.e. killed. As if killing puppies isn’t evil enough, once a greyhound goes through the training required to make it race, it will spend about 23 of every 24 hours locked in a crate that’s too small, and it will be fed the worst grade meat available. Then, the greyhound will be forced to race several times a week, even if it gets injured, and once it can’t race anymore (due to severe injury or burnout), or if it isn’t a winning dog, it’s put to death.
Legally, greyhounds are supposed to be euthanized humanely, but all too often it doesn’t happen that way. Many greyhounds are shot to death, and some hounds at the tracks in desert states are released to die slowly in the arid heat. If you have the stomach for it, go to YouTube and search for “greyhound abuse.” Nothing like piles of dead dogs on a Monday morning to make you feel good about humanity.
Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, does a good job of summing up the hazards greyhound racing poses to the dogs involved:
“Records shows that dogs suffer serious injuries, especially broken bones, while racing, and deaths are known to occur. They are treated like racing machines. What’s more, the dogs at the track endure almost constant confinement when not racing. And when they don’t perform well, they are discarded, killed by track henchman or put up for adoption.”
The dogs that are put up for adoption are the lucky ones. Greyhound rescue organizations work with volunteers at tracks across the country to acquire dogs destined to die. The agencies put the greyhounds in cars or planes, and then they find foster homes for these dogs until they can be adopted out to families. We adopted Maggie from Golden State Greyhounds in Northern California, an amazing rescue organization, and I can tell you from experience that the adoption process is thorough, because the people who know what these dogs go through want to make sure that they end up in a home that will be a healthy and loving environment for them to retire in.
I really hope that the people of Miami-Dade vote this down, because greyhound racing should go away. It’s an awful way to treat amazing dogs that were once considered royalty in both Egypt and Europe. Greyhounds are intelligent, sweet, and full of personality; they’re really more like cats than dogs, actually. Maggie, our greyhound, sleeps ALL DAY. Seriously. Every once in a while, she gets the itch to play with a toy or run in our yard, though that lasts all of two minutes. Besides her daily walks, Maggie is incredibly chill, which is a greyhound thing. After getting to know our greyhound, I can’t imagine how anyone could participate in an industry that treats these amazing dogs like trash.
If you live in Miami-Dade, vote No on Question 3.
If you’d like to read more about greyhound racing, Running For Their Lives is a good place to start. And if you’re thinking about adopting a greyhound, which I recommend, here’s a good list of links organized by state so you can find the rescue organization nearest you.
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