Greyhounds Falling...

Several people contributed to this post: Dick Ciampa, Chris Molnar & others. Many thanks to them.

One of the Animal Rights talking points in trying to destroy professional Greyhound Racing is that dogs are injured & killed in falls on the racetrack. While no one wants to see dogs fall, it happens and it is amazing how resilient they are.

Dick Ciampa did a month long study at Palm Beach Kennel Club. He thought the number of fall at Palm Beach may be more than some other tracks, such as Southland, bcause Palm Beach is the track with the tightest turns. He discovered that there were actually FEWER falls.

Dick Ciampa specifically looked at the month of August 2017. He wanted to see how prevalent falling was in greyhound racing. This is what he found.

Palm Beach Kennel Club – August 2017
Date	Program	#Dogs Fell	Made Next Start	Notes
Aug 01		3	Yes
Aug 02		0
Aug 03		0
Aug 04	A & E	0
Aug 05	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 06	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 07	A & E	0
Aug 08	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 09	A & E	0
Aug 10	A & E	0
Aug 11	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 12	A & E	0
Aug 13	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 14	A & E	2	No	1 dog started 11 days later & hasn't raced since. 1 dog hasn't raced
Aug 15	A & E	1	No	Off for 2 months
Aug 16	A & E	2	Yes
Aug 17	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 18	A & E	0
Aug 19	A & E	0
Aug 20	A & E	0
Aug 21	A & E	0
Aug 22	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 23	A & E	0
Aug 24	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 25	A & E	1	Yes
Aug 26	A & E	2	Yes
Aug 27	A & E	0
Aug 28	A & E	4	Yes
Aug 29	A & E	0
Aug 30	A & E	2	Yes
Aug 31	A & E	1	Yes

There were 585 races with 4,665 individual runs at Palm Beach in August 2017. Twenty-six (26) dogs fell during those 4,665 runs for a 0.55% chance of falling in a race.

Only three (3) of those 26 dogs haven't come back to race. Dick Ciampa counted the dog that made his next start and then hasn't raced since in those 3, which is a 0.064% chance of not racing again.

Twenty-three (23) of those 26 dogs that fell went on to race again with only one requiring a layoff of 2 months before its next start. Twenty-two made their next start a couple of days after falling. That's an 88.5% chance that the dogs will race again after a fall. 

Now, I want to stress: 

Of the dogs that are injured in a fall, 99% are rehabbed & sent into adoption. The majority of career ending injuries are: fractures, sprains, muscle tears and even a fear of racing. Some dogs will get fearful about racing again after a bad fall. 

Shame on anyone for assuming the worst without checking the adoption kennel first. You know what they say about the word ASS-U-ME.

Now then, there are things that can be changed to drastically reduce the chances of falling. I find it rather telling that one of the variables which can be easily fixed is track footing & condition. 



Copyright 2018

Famous Last Words

By Dennis McKeon

"I know their idiosyncrasies… what toys they like, what beds they prefer, the sounds they make…how they're feeling at any given moment. That's a connection you simply can't have with a greyhound you have never even met"

The above quote was offered, several years ago, by a board member of a certain anti-racing lobbying group, referring to his own companion dogs. He made it while arguing that a certain Greyhound owner could not possibly love a Greyhound she had never met.

He was citing a Greyhound she had paid to acquire and to raise, and who would come to live with her once the dog’s racing career (and potential breeding career) was finished.

Now, aside from his statement implying an uncanny ability to see into another’s heart, or to read their mind, it also implies that absent personal contact or knowledge of any dog, one cannot possibly know or truly connect with that dog---or, presumably, with a breed or a population of dogs.

The infamous group he represents, purports to love and care about all Greyhounds, and is one whose agenda and activism is based upon their apparently psychic abilities to intuit the feelings of all Greyhounds, toward their occupation of racing.

Since these people are about as far removed from the lives of those Greyhounds, as you and I are from lives of Geishas in 18th century Japan, I found his statement quite remarkable.

Here we had the spokesperson for a group which has accepted multiple millions in public donations, which portrays itself as the voice of Greyhounds who cannot speak for themselves, admitting that he and his group were complete frauds.

As he explained:

"I know their idiosyncracies…what toys they like, what beds they prefer, the sounds they make…how they're feeling at any given moment. That's a connection you simply can't have with a greyhound you have never even met."

Of course, that is precisely what thousands of Greyhound racing professionals, who care for these dogs 24/7, and who know them intimately, have been trying to tell him and his ilk for decades-- while they portray happy, perfectly content and fulfilled racing Greyhound athletes, as wretched and pathetic objects of pity.

So when you read the press releases, or their begging letters, where they bemoan racing Greyhounds as horribly abused, tragically neglected, pitifully unhappy victims of human ego and avarice--despite their utter disconnection from those woeful creatures--consider the source, and keep this in mind:

“That's a connection you simply can't have with a greyhound you have never even met.”

Truer words were never spoken.

copyright, 2016

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED on the WAY to NOVEMBER

By Dennis McKeon

Greyhound Nation is becoming woke. The Greyhound world community is slowly but surely turning its focus from discussions of the size, color and shape of their pet’s digestive output, to the state of Florida, and the political machinations of national, extremist animal rights groups, who wish to turn Florida’s estimated 8-10,000 Racing Greyhounds into fuzzy-wuzzy outlaws—in a manner of speaking.

These outside agitators and fund-raising juggernauts, who masquerade as “dog protectors”, have managed to somehow convince a significant portion of Florida’s political class, that a proposed statewide prohibition on state-regulated, pari-mutuel greyhound racing, is a question of Constitutional importance, and should become an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Florida.

So come November, voters will be asked whether or not Rover and Clover’s sanction to race in Florida, yea or nay, belongs up there with broader philosophical and constitutional matters such as:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

And that Rover and Clover’s future should be decided by voters who routinely mistake them for deer, egged on by fanatical, animal rights ideologues and propagandists, whose lack of practical, first-person knowledge or experience with greyhounds and their lives within racing, is exceeded only by their lack of ethics, and lack of veracity in their knee-jerk, talking-point, scripted opposition to Greyhound racing.

But a funny thing happened on the way to November. Something that the multi-million dollar, national animal rights fund-raising juggernauts hadn’t quite anticipated.

Thousands of Florida’s greyhound adopters, greyhound adoption providers, and greyhound adopters all over the USA, and in nearby Canada, began to question and to take exception to the mischaracterization of their loving and beloved, retired Greyhound pets, as abused and traumatized victims of institutional and systemic cruelty.

Social media lit up like a galaxy of tote-boards, with the testimonials of retired greyhound adopters and adoption providers, who realize that their beautifully-tempered, splendidly-behaved, loving and lovable adoptees, could not possibly have re-adapted as pets, and manifested so magnificently, by the hundreds of thousands, had they actually been the “victims” that those who are light years removed from their everyday lives in racing, pretend that they are.

Facebook groups and Political Action Committees were formed, to debunk the propaganda of these outside agitators, and to preserve the safe-space in Florida that Greyhounds have earned, rather than casting their fate to the unknown, by disenfranchising them via Constitutional mandate.

A local Florida artist, who was seeking truth, as artists are inclined to do, began to make real-time videos of Florida’s greyhounds, in their kennels all around the state, and in their moments of preparation, play and repose. He saw nothing but happy, healthy, personable, well-adjusted and well-cared for dogs. He shared these videos on his Greyhound Chronicles and Paint the Trail Facebook pages, so that the public could get a first-person look, behind-the-scenes, at how the greyhounds feel about their lives within racing. The public’s response was overwhelmingly positive. And the fake dog protectors? Not so much.

What is especially remarkable and noteworthy, is that these individuals, grassroots groups, committees and PACs were not sponsored, sanctioned or requested by the “greyhound racing industry”, or the National Greyhound Association, or the Florida Greyhound Association.

They are an entirely organic phenomenon, comprised mainly of retired greyhound adopters, and adoption providers, who have come to understand the crucial role that organized, state-regulated racing plays, not only for having united them with their cherished greyhound pets in the first place, but in preserving the Greyhound’s critical, thousands-of-year-old genetic diversity, athletic heritage, and their current and future well-being.

Protect Greyhounds
Vote NO on 13

copyright, 2018

Anti-Racing Fanatics Activities Against Greyhounds

By Dennis McKeon 

ANTI-RACERS DON'T WANT TO SHARE SPACE WITH RETIRED RACING GREYHOUND SERVICE DOGS

PROTECTING GREYHOUNDS 
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Karl & Hero @ Hob Nob

FROM the FAKE GREYHOUND PROTECTORS---VOTE NO on 13.

For those of you who missed it, it is important for you to know that the anti-racing contingent at the recent Seminole County Hob Nob, tried to have the retired racing greyhounds who were there, removed from the premises.
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These particular retired racing greyhounds, just so happened to be specially trained Service Dogs, who are trained, among other things, to be of service and comfort to our armed forces Veterans..

Those Veterans are the brave men and women who have put their lives on the line, so that even the most ignorant, greyhound-averse, propaganda-spreading ideologues, are able to have a say-so in a concept as foreign to them as the welfare of an entire population of greyhounds.
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Fortunately, security at the event realized that removing those retired racing greyhound Service Dogs would have been a violation of law, and they declined to do so.
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Apparently, these beautifully-mannered and noble greyhounds, were attracting quite a bit more attention, and their perfect deportment was flying in the face of the "greyhound racing is cruel and abusive" propaganda that the anti-racers were hoping to promote. So, like spoiled little children, they threw a tantrum, rather than embracing and welcoming these magnificent greyhounds they claim to be "protecting".
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Protect Greyhounds...Vote No on 13

Copyright 2018

The Humane Case for Greyhound Racing

By Dennis McKeon

I just finished listening to a broadcast from Florida, where a lobbyist for greyhound racing debated the “issues” with a lobbyist from an anti-racing group. To spare you the tedium of listening to it yourself, it was pretty much a win for the anti-racing lobbyist, as I heard it.

Not that the pro-racing side didn’t make valuable points. The lobbyist was well prepared with the financial, wagering and tax revenue data, which supported his point of view, that greyhound racing is far from a dying sport, and still makes significant contributions to Florida’s economy and tax coffers.

Predictably, the anti-racing lobbyist fairly ignored those facts, and went straight for the heartstrings, making the usual, spurious, counter-intuitive and inexperienced claims of cruel and inhumane confinement and handling, dietary insufficiency, and unnecessary exposure to injury, while implying that the use of illegal and performance-enhancing drugs is more than a rare and, almost always, anomalous occurrence.

Sadly, the pro-racing lobbyist made few convincing rebuttals to much of that, and had he been able. was not given a great deal of time to make them,

What was noteworthy, was that the anti-racing lobbyist admitted that today, “most greyhounds ARE adopted” after their racing careers have ended, and he waxed, near rhapsodically, about what superb pets they make.

Now that admission is quite revealing. And that is because canines either make great pets, or not so great pets---or unmanageable pets---for a number of reasons. There is a both a nature and a nurture component to the making of a great pet. There are inputs and feedback regarding both nature and nurture.

The “nature” aspect includes things like genetics, diversity, bloodlines, temperament, disposition, conformation, and how those things either may enhance or inhibit the greyhound’s ability to function and perform its job. In the case of the greyhounds most of us know, that would be chasing a mechanical lure around an oval shaped race track.

“Nurture” involves inputs and feedback, as they relate to performance of that function, and then, to selectivity when the breeder is choosing which individuals are to be bred.

The greyhounds’ “inputs”, in addition to the previously mentioned aspects of “nature”, are things such as environment, raising, handling, diet, and training. These all enhance or detract from the greyhound’s ability to function, and either limit or expand his capacity to function at a certain level.

The “feedbacks”, which are used to improve and perfect the inputs, are the results of actual, head-to-head racing competition. These competitions allow breeders and trainers to see, in no uncertain terms, whether the inputs they applied were appropriate, and when and where they may be improved upon or changed. They also enable breeders to make informed decisions about which individual greyhounds and greyhound families, are on the cutting edge of adaptation to the function of racing.

Now each and every greyhound is the embodiment---the sum total---of all these inputs and feedbacks, from nature to nurture, from the whelping box to the starting box. If they indeed do make such great pets, then it can only be a result of all these things---because of them, and not in spite of them. That is how canines work.

So we have a population of dogs who were never bred with the intention of being pets, or anything other than performing athletes, who have become a literal pet phenomenon.

And we have a ringleader of the anti-racing movement endorsing them as wonderful pets, while tacitly implying that none of these things we have discussed here, all these things that make up the individual greyhound---nature, nurture, inputs, feedback and function---have any bearing on that, whatsoever.

Accordingly, we must then infer that it is cruel and inhumane treatment, and widespread “abuse” of these greyhounds, which has made them the unprecedented success they have become as companions in retirement, the world over.

You decide.

copyright, 2017

Trying To Reason with Hurricane Season

By Dennis McKeon

This is the time of year that I usually begin to check the Weather Underground “severe weather” reports. I don’t like hurricanes. They knock over trees. I like trees. Just not on, nor through the roof of the house.

So my first of many yearly excursions to that estimable web page, brought to mind the hurricane of 2017, called Irma. It posed a clear and present danger to the state of Florida (among others). There was a great deal of concern not only for the residents of Florida, but for the estimated 8-10,000 actively racing greyhounds who live and race there.

In hindsight, it is interesting to note, that the same people who call themselves “greyhound protectors”, and who are politically active today, in attempting to ban greyhound racing in Florida, thereby disenfranchising many of those 8-10,000 greyhounds, had an equally curious strategy, then, to “protect” those greyhounds.

As Florida residents undertook a mass exodus of their state, gridlocking highways and emptying gas stations up and down the isthmus, the self-styled experts behind today’s “Committee to Protect Dogs”, were demanding that the greyhounds of Florida join the insanity.

Insisting that the kennels at the various racetracks were not built well enough to withstand the force of a Category 4 hurricane, they were trumpeting all over the media, that Florida’s racing greyhounds should be evacuated, 10-12 at a time, if need be, to who knows where. And that it was the height of unconcern for Florida's racing professionals not to do so at once.

24 Hrs Post Irma

Naturally, people who actually understand and know how to care for large colonies of greyhounds, were virtually dumbstruck by the pure absurdity of such an impracticable and dangerous suggestion, which, when amplified incessantly by the media, became a more of a taunt.

Fortunately, Florida’s greyhound racing professionals did not panic, and as greyhound racing professionals always have done, they chose to ride out the storm, and to stay in the kennels with their greyhounds. Because that’s what real greyhound protectors do. They place the greyhounds first. Not their agenda, and not their personal safety.

And not a single greyhound, nor their attendant trainers or kennel owners in the state of Florida, was harmed by the considerable rage of Hurricane Irma---despite the dire warnings and taunts of those self-styled experts, who are now the braintrust of ‘The Committee To Protect Dogs”.

Courtesy of the Committee to Protect Dogs. this year’s brainstorm of “greyhound protection”, for those of you who aren’t aware, is to ban greyhound racing in Florida, via a Constitutional Amendment, to be voted on by the public. Demonstrating once again, that “fake greyhound protectors”, should be feared more by greyhounds, than Armageddon hurricanes. Or by the prospect of thousands of Florida’s greyhounds having to be re-homed by independent adoption groups, without any contingency plan built into the proposed legislation.

Meanwhile, the “greyhound protectors”, or the Committee to Protect Dogs, or whatever counter-intuitive name they are calling themselves by then, will ride off into the sunset, as they always have, without a care or concern in the world for any of that.

Just like Hurricane Irma did.

copyright, 2018

(with acknowledgment to Jimmy Buffet)