Unlucky 13 – The Threat to Greyhound Racing

BY CAROLINE COILE

Elephants, whales, and—-racing greyhounds? Right now Amendment 13, a proposal to end greyhound racing, is on the ballot in Florida. Just as many of us feared, once Jumbo and Willie were freed (and by the way, now that the circus is out of business, who is paying to feed those elephants?), the free-the-animal groups aimed for the next an- imal involved in entertainment—-the racing greyhound. Amendment 13 was initiated by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Grey2KUSA (G2K). G2K is a lobbying group, not a retired racers adoption group, although many people assume they are, just as they assume HSUS is a shel- ter. Only 1.6% of G2K’s annual $600K income goes to greyhound adoption groups.

Why should you care? Because if racing goes, what will they set their sights on next? The Iditarod has long been under fire. What about lure-coursing? FAST CAT? Dock diving? Retrieving trials? Dog shows?

But as dog lovers, shouldn’t we oppose greyhound racing? After all, don’t they drastically overbreed and euthanize thousands of dogs every year, right? That’s old news. These days breeding numbers have been cut dramatically, and adoption numbers have risen to the point that demand nearly exceeds supply. In 2017 the National Greyhound Association (NGA) registered 7,000 puppies. This represents every puppy alive at 3 months of age. Records indicate that most of these puppies make it to the track with 80% of them winning a maiden race and embarking on racing careers. The other 20% may be retained for breeding or made available for adoption. Even puppies with obvious defects are placed for adoption at an early age. Every dog can be followed, and culling is not the norm.

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Posted by Alex on Sep 26 2018. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.