Explaining Propaganda

By John Murray

A few of weekends ago, someone shot my dogs. One of them was tangled in a string, struggling to get free. This was after they were forced to run 3.5 miles. A few of weeks before that, they were forced to wear muzzles and stuffed in a cramped metal box from which they struggled to get free. When they were finally let out, they had sand forced into their eyes. They were forced to run a little over a mile with sand constantly being forced into their eyes. Will you donate so these dogs don’t have to suffer any more?

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? See how easy it is to twist things and elicit a guilty, emotional response? Here’s what really happened:

We went lure coursing a few weekends ago with my whippets and some people took some fabulous pictures (shot) of my dogs.

The course they ran on that Saturday was 990 yards (2x runs per dog), and Tesla ran the 1100 yard course on Sunday 4 times as she competed in 2 runoffs in addition to her 2 regular runs (total of 6200 yards = ~3.5 miles).

She often grabs the baggy at the end and tugs relentlessly on the line and baggy to try and break it free so she can play the “chase me with the toy” game ("tangled in string", struggling to get free). She actually wasn’t bound up by the string at all.

A few weeks prior to that we went amateur racing at a greyhound training facility where we’re occasionally allowed to race our whippets. They wear muzzles just like the racing greyhounds so that an errant tooth at the end doesn’t cause some stitches or worse. With only one lure and high lure drive, the muzzles protect the racers from each other and make it easier to determine race winners in close races. They’re eager to chase the lure and when we put them in the starting box, they know the lure is behind them (they saw it as we walked past) and want nothing more than to catch it, so they struggle to get out of the starting box as fast as possible. If a dog isn’t the lead dog, they get sand kicked up and some gets in the dog’s eyes, which the dog’s body naturally expels through the tear ducts (sand forced into their eyes). We often rinse their eyes with saline after each race to help and we rinse their paws to make sure no sand causes rub spots between their toes/pads etc. They show a little bit of discomfort, but don’t typically seem extremely bothered by it. They run 3 races per day of 330 yards each race for a total of a little over 1 mile for the weekend.

I wrote this to illustrate a point. I hope people take a moment to pause and consider emotionally charged rhetoric and words about greyhound racing, especially if it’s from an organization asking for donations. Context is important in understanding all aspects of a situation and it’s very easy to portray statistics in an emotionally charged way that supports one’s own agenda, as I believe I’ve shown above. Charities, necessarily, have to beg for money and there are a lot of good charities doing wonderful work out there. It’s not my intent to harm the good work these truly beneficial organizations conduct. Unfortunately, there are some (many?) ‘charity’ organizations that will cross any line they legally can to get your donations with no intention of actually helping the cause/dogs/people they claim to support. So I hope if you come across an organization (Grey2k), led by a lawyer (Christine Dorchak) that raises millions of dollars a year but hasn’t actually helped any of the subjects they, Dorchak and her husband, Carey Theil, claim to be helping, I would kindly ask you to ignore those groups and their emotionally charged misinformation. Instead, I would ask you to move along to a more reputable group and source of information. As just one of the many examples of illogical lies being perpetuated, I saw a picture of an anti-racing protester holding a sign claiming 27,000 greyhounds are euthanized a year because they can't race anymore. The National Greyhound Association lists all puppies bred for racing purposes even the ones that are still born and in 2013 there were a little over 10,000 puppies born for racing across the U.S. If nearly 3x the greyhounds born each year are euthanized, how is that remotely sustainable? The NGA claims a 95% adoption rate; we see stories all the time about retired racers being adopted into being used for therapy dogs etc. Which seems more accurate?

If possible go see for yourself what’s really going on with greyhound racing and ask questions of those directly involved in greyhound racing as it’s being vilified with lies and deceit by numerous anti-racing interests. Go watch the wagging tails at the end of each race and tell me with a straight face they don't love it. I hope you keep an open mind and don't believe the hype.