By Dennis McKeon

BREAKING NEWS!!!...Greyhound Racing Now Legal in Forty Nine of Fifty States

I was just funnin’. It’s not really a newsflash. It’s simply a fact. Greyhound racing is legal in 49 out of 50 states here in the good ol’ USA.

Those of us who have been following the war on Greyhound Racing, which has been waged by various groups of fanatical animal rights extremists for nigh on 5 decades now, might not actually realize that. Despite what greyhound racing’s most hyperbolic and bellicose antagonists, such as Grey2K, tout in their well-rehearsed and contrived talking points and press releases.

While they would have us believe that greyhound racing is a felonious activity in most states, true to form, they have deliberately obfuscated the fact that greyhound racing is perfectly legal in every state of the Union but one. What they neglect to tell you, where there are laws that might imply to the casual reader that greyhound racing is indeed against the law, 

is that it is WAGERING on greyhound races that has actually been made into a criminal activity, everywhere racing is supposedly banned.

Most of these states never sponsored greyhound racing in the first place. The “bans” on wagering on it were instigated mainly at the behest of the well-heeled horse-racing lobby, long before Grey2k even existed. The horsey-set generally prefers to have a monopoly on sponsoring events where the money gambled comprises their earnings.

This brings to light an interesting and crucial difference between reality and the garden-variety propaganda of Grey2k and their co-activist, co-radical drum-beaters and pot-stirrers.

Grey2k and their sugar-raddies at the HSUS (the uber-extremist and deceptively named Humane Society of the US, which has nothing at all to do with your local humane society) like to tug at the public heart strings by implying that they “help the greyhounds”. According to Grey2k, the best way you, concerned citizen, can help these greyhounds, is to go to their websites and give them money. Little of this money, if any, however, will be used for hands-on welfare of those greyhounds who they are supposed to be helping. Au contraire. Grey2k is not a humane society, a shelter, or a greyhound adoption group. They are a political lobbying group.

Political lobbyists, to refesh our memories, are the people from whom even the most wiggly and waggly politicians will slip and slime their way through a metaphorical sewer pipe to distance themselves in the public’s eyes.

Billboards, All Links Go To Grey2K USA

The latest fund-raising chakra-eruption to have emerged from the oh-so-concerned-for-the-greyhounds meditations of Grey2k, is to help the greyhounds by having the donation givers pay for billboards which will advertise the Grey2k website.

You read it right---billboards. Billboards which will direct you toward the donation-extraction interface of the Grey2k website. Now how clever is that?

No, these billboards will not be edible by greyhounds, they will not be designed to shelter greyhounds, and the greyhounds will not be able to play "keep-away" with them.

So, in a most “Rube Goldberg”, convoluted but self-perpetuating fashion, this is how Grey2k intends to once again “help the greyhounds” with your money. As a point of information, Rube Goldberg was the guy who made all those amazingly complex contraptions you see in old movies, which perform very simple tasks. Those of us who remember the Ideal board game of Mouse Trap, can truly appreciate the ingeniousness of this latest ploy by Grey2k to “help the greyhounds”---it’s so much more fun than simply making a donation to a real greyhound adoption group. And, I'd venture a guess, so much more profitable, long term, for Grey2k.

Lest you think I am being too hard on them, I’d like to see them take it a step further. We all know how cruel and abusive greyhound racing is purported to be by these always open-handed but seldom open-minded, self-described greyhound advocacy groups like Grey2k.

They are utterly convinced of this, despite having no empirical experience whatsoever in greyhound racing. They refuse to even consider trying to achieve any consensus-building with Greyhound Racing, which might be of benefit to all parties. They have always, and without reservation, engaged and promoted their brand of slash-and-burn advocacy---greyhound racing must be destroyed. That is a matter of historical fact. It’s either their way or the highway---and while you’re out there on that highway, please keep an eye out for our Grey2k billboards, and send us some money.

So, for the sake of critical thinking, let’s take them at their word. They want to protect greyhounds from the injury risks that racing exposes them to. Roger that. They want to protect them from the alleged abuses that a career as a racing greyhound supposedly imposes upon them. Got it.

NOTRA-LGRA, courtesy of All About Greyhounds

Now let’s also ask them where they stand on the multitude of greyhounds and other breeds of dogs who are actively engaged in amateur racing, as well as open field and lure coursing.

These greyhounds also compete in risky and competitive racing, whether against one another or against the time clock. They are all subject to and occasionally suffer the very same injuries as racing greyhounds. As a matter of fact, many of the dogs that compete in these events are retired racing greyhounds.

Are these dogs somehow unworthy of the same concern and protections from injury and potential abuse as racing greyhounds? Why are Grey2k and their supporters not “helping” them? Why is State-regulated greyhound racing so much more heinous and unacceptable an activity than is amateur, non-State regulated racing and coursing?

Why do they choose to persecute and vilify greyhound racing professionals employed in racing with Pari-mutuel wagering, but not greyhound racing and coursing amateurs and hobbyists, where there is no wagering?

Should not genuine greyhound advocates also take up the cause of greyhounds who are subjected to the same training and racing, athletically induced stresses and hazards as those greyhounds involved in professional racing?

Where is the outrage?

Where is the concern?

Where is the heart-rending, hand-wringing, billboard-erecting sympathy for these dogs?

A perusal of the Board Members of an activist organization called Stop Predatory Gambling, reveals to us that one Carey Theil, Executive Director of Grey2k USA, also happens to sit on that Board of Stop Predatory Gambling.

My, my, my…what a coincidence!

Then, lo and behold, when we skip over to the Grey2k website, we see none other than the Reverend Tom Grey, who is listed as a Grey2k Board Member, and also as the Field Director and spokesperson for Stop Predatory Gambling.

Eureka!

Yet another astonishing coincidence! I’ll be right back, I’m just going out to buy a few lottery tickets. This simply must be my lucky day.

Reminder to self—send Rev. Grey and Mr. Theil an email and ask them what they suppose the odds might be against something like that.


Comment By Grey2K Lies


Remember...  Carey Theil continually states, "Grey2K USA has no position on gambling."  Yeah... right...  I was born at night, but not last night!  When pigs fly...


Yours in greyhounds...