Welcome!

Welcome to Grey2K Lies, a blog dedicated to countering the partial truths and outright lies being spread about Greyhound Racing in the USA.

"We have tried, too frequently, to be kind in the face of our attackers. We've tried to tell them the logic. We've tried to describe the very basis of everything we do.  Has it escaped everybody that we are polite to them? If we were hateful, abusive degenerates, would we not be hunting them down with 2x4's and beating them to death?  God save us!  We must be the very most tolerant of people on the planet. To be attacked so much and so brutally and to respond without the hate, the vile & bitter bile that is so obvious in the LIES that they spew. Surely, it is the dogs we love that are the foundation of the messages we carry. They say we "torture" our racers, but we haven't it in us to torture the very people who call us names. Funny...  It isn't because what they say is true. It's because we have no malice in us. We handle the finest dogs that ever put foot to ground and they define our very being.  Our souls. We ARE our dogs!  They will never be.

I don't understand...  I just don't understand.  I look into the eyes of my beloved dogs and they take me away from all this. I live for my time with them.  And yet, the "all this" rides over my head... like a storm. It will kill me.  I know it will.  I will cling to my dogs through the storm."

The paragraphs above are from Betty Zubritsky. She describes how we think & feel, most especially about the dogs. We live for the dogs; we die for the dogs. For us, the dogs are our safe harbors, our ports in the storm.

Grey2K would have you believe that people enter into greyhound racing to kill dogs. They don't. People get into the sport with great respect for the breed, for what makes them tick. They value the dogs and cater to their every need.

Grey2K would have you believe that the people involved in racing are only in it to make a buck, to exploit the dogs.  They aren't. Exploitation implies that the people involved in racing have no feelings for the dogs. Yet, the people involved in breeding and racing these extraordinary creatures care for each individual and for the breed as a whole. Again, to quote Betty, "I love my dogs. I love this breed. I love the race and I will go to my grave defending those of us who do it right.  Go fast, turn left...."

A bit about Betty...  

Betty came into greyhounds when she met her first one in 1995. That chance encounter changed her life. At that time, Betty knew squat about racing. However, she saw the documentaries, the ones that showed the abuses, the horror stories, the media versions of greyhound racing that tugged at the heartstrings and opened up the wallets of the general public. She decided to "save a life" and rescue a "desperate" dog. Her first two greyhounds from an anti-racing group and she started actively participating in Meet & Greets, volunteering and letter writing. Then, she discovered, as the late, great Paul Harvey said, "the rest of the story".

With some prodding from 'pro-racing folks', Betty decided to do her own research on greyhound racing. She discovered that things were not necessarily as presented by her 'rescue' group. She was told by the racing folk that, "yes, we know what you've seen and we don't blame you for believing it.  It's pretty convincing stuff.  But listen..."

She listened and many things were explained with logic & facts. She learned about the outdated video footage, much of which was from other countries and not the USA. She learned that those involved in racing agreed that there were still things that needed to be made better. "There are bad people. They are not the norm." She learned that the racing folk allowed her to form her own opinions.

Pardon the pun, but Betty took the lead and ran with it! She set off to learn the truth. She got a job on a greyhound farm in Abilene, KS.  She says this about her first employer, "Mary may not have been the most charming of employers (ok, she was a brute), but her dogs were meticulously tended. Her kennels were spotlessly clean. Her whelping stalls were even cleaner. The dogs were permitted to pounce us with wild abandon. No hand could be raised; no voice could be raised; no rake could be swung. Even swearing at them was a crime, punishable by....  well, there was a pretty stead turnover of help on that farm. But, the dogs were first.   THE DOGS WERE FIRST!"

After an 11 month stint on Mary's farm, she continued her research, finding a job at the track in Kansas City and staying there for 3 years.  In that time, she learned about keeping the kennels clean, keeping the turnouts peaceful and calming, and how to respect the dogs. She then moved on to the Woodlands racetrack. She was terrified of her employer, who she describes as a "mountain of a man", until she saw him with his dogs, cramming his large frame into a crate to cuddle with his "girlies", time & time again chatting & cooing them.

When The Woodlands closed, she went to "the Valley", Victoryland, Gulf Park, Jacksonville, Wheeling, and Southland. She saw a lot and admits that some of it was unpleasant, but the bad stuff was never about dogs in peril. Betty states, "Simple logic describes that if I couldn't stumble on Greyhound abuse with that many venues on my resume, it's probably a very rare occurrence."

Betty, after all her research, decided to pursue her chosen profession - working with NGA greyhounds in the sport of greyhound racing.