Before You Vote in Florida...

Ask yourself…

How can…

• greyhounds “confined to crates 23 hours a day” run 45 mph on a track?
• a greyhound die “every three days” when the injury rate in racing is 0.3%?
• “thousands of dogs be thrown away” when the adoption rate for greyhounds is 95%-98%?
• greyhounds be “abused and neglected” when they quickly become wonderful pets in homes?

If this proposed Amendment is focused on greyhound welfare, why does it...

• allow casinos to close tracks on 12/31/18 rather than mandating closure in 2 years as purported?
• commit nothing towards placing 8K-10K greyhounds in homes? 
• place greyhounds in overcrowded, high kill animal shelters?
• ban wagering on live racing yet allows wagering on greyhound races from other states?

Do you know that...

• greyhound racing contributed >$96 million into the Florida State School Trust Fund?
• HSUS, ASPCA, Grey2K and PETA raised over $300 million last year and gave less than 1% to animal rescue groups?
• passage of 13 allows expansion of casinos in FL without voter consent?
• passage of 13 opens the state up to $500 million in lawsuits for inverse condemnation. 

To date, 85 greyhound adoption groups in the US & Canada, comprised of thousands of volunteers who love the breed, support racing. They KNOW the dogs are treated right. 

Amendment 13 is a poor bet for Florida taxpayers & for greyhounds.

If you want to learn more, may I suggest these links.

Amendment 13 - A Poor Bet for Floridians

Ending Greyhound Racing Could Cost State $500 Million

Greyhound Racing Ban Means $400K Loss to Education

Greyhound Chronicles - Life Behind the Scenes

copyright 2018

A Greyhound Dies Every Three Days on a Florida Track - DEBUNKED

“You only use 10 percent of your brain. Eating carrots improves your eyesight. Vitamin C cures the common cold. Crime in the United States is at an all-time high.

None of those things are true. But the facts don't actually matter: People repeat them so often that you believe them. Welcome to the “illusory truth effect,” a glitch in the human psyche that equates repetition with truth. Marketers and politicians are masters of manipulating this particular cognitive bias---which perhaps you have become more familiar with lately.“ —- from “Want to Make a Lie Seem True? Say it Again. And Again. And Again.” Emily Dreyfuss 2/11/17 Sound familiar? One of the most often repeated phrases of the anti-racing faction in recent years is the deceptive statistic that a greyhound dies every three days on Florida racetracks. Grey2K masterminded this catch phrase after successfully sponsoring a law, which became effective mid-2013, requiring that every death of a greyhound occurring on Florida track grounds be reported to the state. It doesn’t matter if the death was race related, from illness or natural causes - it must be reported. That there was no effort or consideration when proposing this law to include safety measures to reduce injuries and fatalities, is indicative of their agenda. They were interested only in the numbers, not the welfare of the dogs. Five years later, Grey2K uses these reports to evoke shock, pity and anger, in their ongoing crusade to eradicate greyhound racing. From May 31, 2013 through September 30, 2017, there were 438 greyhound fatalities reported by various Florida racetracks. Grey2K has manipulated this raw data into one of the most blatant deceptions in their bag of tricks - “a greyhound dies on a Florida track every three days.” These 438 deaths of Florida greyhounds occurred over 52 months or 4.333 years. This equates to an average of 101 deaths per year. Grey2K’s claim of one death every three days, using the correct mathematical calculation, would equate to 122 per year, not 101 - a 20% overstatement on their part, but then they were never ones to shy away from exaggeration. What they don't tell you, because they don't know, is how many individual dogs were actually in residence at tracks over this 52 month period, or even over a 12 month period. We know that dogs come and go throughout the year, as some retire and others begin their official careers, so the static population at any given time has been estimated at approximately 8,000 dogs. In any given calendar year, the number might actually include as many as 12,000 individual dogs if the annual turnover rate were 50%, or 10,000 at 25%.
To be conservative, using the 8,000 figure and the true average of 101 deaths per year, the mortality rate would be 1.26%. That percentage would drop to 1% or less if the actual number of dogs in residence during a 12 month period were higher.
The 688 participants in a recent online survey circulated to owners of NGA bred pet greyhounds reported 1,506 greyhounds of any age resided in their homes in the year 2017. Of those, there were 21 deaths reported for greyhound pets younger than 6 years of age, or 1.39%.
The survey also asked participants for the overall number of pet greyhounds they’ve ever had in their homes, and how many had died prior to reaching 6 years of age. Out of 3,710 greyhounds reported, 167 died before age 6 - or 4.5%. While the pet survey is anecdotal and not independently verified, there’s no reason to believe the numbers and information reported are not accurate.
While any premature death of a racing greyhound is tragic and heart wrenching, a reasonable conclusion would be that the occurrence of fatalities at race tracks appears to be less than or in line with those occurring in pet greyhounds of similar age and from similar causes.
The larger issue is not the number of deaths or injuries on Florida greyhound tracks, but why and how could they be prevented? The Florida greyhound industry has repeatedly proposed legislation which would mandate that track owners implement strategic safety measures, as well as requiring greyhound handlers to report all racing-related injuries. At every turn, Grey2K and their affiliated legislators have struck down these proposals in favor of bills requiring injury reporting only, with no provision for injury prevention. Clearly the so-called greyhound “protectors” are more interested in maintaining their bank account balance than maintaining safe racing venues.
(c) 2018

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

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)

What’s In A Name?

By Dennis McKeon

We often hear from new adopters of retired greyhounds, that the greyhound they have adopted doesn’t respond to its “call name”. A call name is the name that the trainers and the assistants use when training, handling and addressing an individual greyhound.

Many times, the greyhound’s call name bears no resemblance to the dog’s registered, official, racing name, but sometimes it is a derivation or abbreviation of that name. Nevertheless, it is to both the greyhounds’ and their adopters’ benefit, if the call name is known. Sometimes, the greyhound’s call name is lost in the transition from track, to adoption kennel, to adopter, however.

Irrespective of all that, given that the newly adopted greyhound is about to go through (what for some of them is) a cataclysmic change of venue and lifestyle, it can be of some, small comfort to them, to hear their familiar name spoken and used by these complete strangers--who will soon become the focus of their new lives. There are many challenging adjustments ahead for the newly re-homed greyhound, and having to learn to respond to an unfamiliar name, can only serve to complicate making those adjustments.

Now there are some greyhounds who may choose not to respond to a strange voice, or to a person with whom they aren’t familiar, or with whom they aren’t yet entirely comfortable. This should not be interpreted by the new adopter as a personal rejection. It’s just that some greyhounds can be almost cat-like in their aloofness, or their reaction to new people within their sphere and environment. That aloofness can be amplified by their shocking discovery that their environment is now entirely unfamiliar, full of strange, and often, mysterious or intimidating sights, sounds and objects. Their call name may be the only familiar thing they have to hold onto, at that stage of the game.

Back in the day, when I was plying the trade, most of the time greyhounds would arrive at the racing kennel with their call name taped or otherwise written on their collars. Since it was a racing commission rule that the greyhound’s official racing name could not be in any way affixed to their crate (so that no stranger could tamper with them in order to affect a dog’s performance), the call name was usually printed on a piece of masking tape, and then affixed to the dog’s crate.

The popular misconception among some adopters, is to infer that in cases where the greyhound is unresponsive to what they were told was its call name, that he or she must not have actually had one. While I suppose that it might the case in very isolated instances, I can assure you, that in my experience, they all had familiar names. It would be virtually impossible for any trainer to maintain order and efficiency in his/her kennel, if the individual greyhounds in their care, were not responsive to their trainer’s call or commands.

Looking back on it all now, there are times when I can’t recall the racing name of a greyhound I may have handled, but I can almost always remember their call names. That’s how we knew them.

For example, there is the curious case of one red-brindle, 76 pounder, called Lamont. He had the most vexing habit of racing on the outermost part of the track, right next to the grass apron---all the way around. He didn’t simply veer wide on the straightaways, and then drop down to the rail to shotgun the turns. Au contraire—he parked himself as wide as was canine-ly possible, and stayed there, for the entire race.

Because he was giving up gobs of ground to his rivals, he had some difficulty recovering that ground in a 550 yard race. And while he was gifted with otherworldly speed and stamina, he just couldn’t get up in time to beat good dogs, given his bizarre, extreme fixation on the outer lane of the racetrack. No amount of training, high, holy novenas, sorcery, witchcraft, or even trying to reason with him, was about to change that.

So I decided that his future success would probably be more easily secured with a change in distance--to longer distance. Even though that would present him with another, additional turn, on which he would inevitably give away even more ground, there was no doubt in my mind that he would easily stay for 770 yards (marathon distance), eventually. The plan was to give him a few races at 660 yards, see how he handled that, and then, go onto the longer, marathon distance.

Now, you have to let the racing secretary know when you wish to change a greyhound from one distance to another, and there was a standard form to fill out, so that he could draw him into a race at the distance you had indicated you preferred. I did that, and went to work on Lamont, getting him ready for yet a new adventure in practiced ground-losing.

Normally, the dog will not miss a day in rotation, and might even draw in to race a day earlier, when you switch from shorter to longer distance (there are always fewer greyhounds entered for distances longer than the standard, 550 yard “sprint”, so the turnaround can be faster). For some reason, Lamont didn’t draw in at all. I guess I waited about 5 days before I decided I had better inquire of the racing secretary, just what was the problem.

But I didn’t have to. That evening, after weighing in the night’s racers, in my message box in the racing office, was a note, from the racing secretary himself. It read simply:

“No dog named Lamont on roster”.

I was god-smacked. I had, mindlessly, entered the dog by his call name!

Lamont wasn’t Lamont, to the public or to the racing secretary. His official racing name was---ironically enough---Beyond Recall.

copyright, 2017

West "By God" Virginia!

The greyhound community had some pretty high hopes that the GOP with its "Jobs" Agenda would support the racing greyhound community, that their jobs, 1700+ jobs in West "By God" Virginia, wouldn't be under attack. Boy, did we get it wrong! Thank God that the Democratic Governor, Jim Justice, and others understood what was at stake and he got it right!

Photo courtesy of the Governor's Office &
WV Metro News

Governor Jim Justice vetoed the decoupling bill that would have killed thousands of jobs, displaced thousands of dogs, and wrecked families. He said,

“If we get rid of greyhound racing it will mean job losses and fewer people coming to West Virginia,” Justice later stated in a release.

Eliminating support for the greyhounds is a job killer and I can’t sign it. The last thing we need to do is drive more people out of West Virginia. We can’t turn our back on communities like Wheeling that benefit from dog racing.

Greyhounds are born runners, and I hope to keep them running in West Virginia for a very long time.We can’t turn our back on dog racing in WV!”

He also questioned the legality of the Legislature unilaterally decoupling West Virginia casinos and race tracks because counties authorized gaming and racing as a package deal.

At this time, we want to offer our thanks to Governor Justice and all those who supported West "By God" Virginia greyhound racing in its time of need.

THANK YOU!

Yours in greyhounds....

Primacy

By Dennis McKeon

The intent and result of good breed custodianship shouldn't be about "keeping the breed around". Yet we often hear people who really have no idea of what managing a population of dogs entails, say things like, "If greyhound racing disappeared, there would still be greyhounds. They've been around for thousands of years before racing".

And while that may be true, it fails to note that for as long as they have been around men, they've always had a job to perform. There are few breeds, sporting or otherwise, whose breeding records can be documented as far back as the 1700s, as can the Greyhound’s.

In any event, as human culture evolved, so did the greyhound's role in human societies. The people who now wish to take away the last functional refuge of the greyhound, are the very same people who have denied him the expression of his original hunting heritage, in almost all areas of the Western world.

Yet it is the primacy of these functions that have informed every fiber, sinew and aspect of your greyhound, from the tip of his nose, right down to the zygote. No one in the USA owns a retired racing greyhound who was "bred to be a pet". That never enters into the selective equation. That mystical, ethereal, beguiling aspect of their nature that we all recognize, but can't quite put words to, is the one common denominator of all greyhounds, throughout history. It is the primacy of their function.

The racing greyhound today, is the result of 100 years of having been bred to perform a specific function, which is simply an improvisation upon its original hunting purpose. That original purpose is, for the vast majority of greyhounds, denied to them today, by law.

So while racing may not be of any interest or attraction to you, it is the only macro-scale activity that reinforces and preserves the primacy of the greyhound, the only thing that supports a vast and genetically diverse greyhound population, and the only thing which stands between that and fringe breed status, or worse, for the Greyhound.

The cause and effect of their breeding, raising, training, handling, environment and experiences as racers, are formative and immutable. The greyhounds we profess to love, are who and what they are, precisely BECAUSE of--not in spite of---all those things. That's how dogs manifest.

And no amount of hysterical and destructive propaganda can change it.

copyright, 2015

"Rescue"... What is it?

It's one little word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  It is a word that has been used to inflect hurt upon people; it is a word that has been used to describe the process of rehoming animals.  It is a word that generates images of pathetic, abused animals, which then generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for some group such as HSUS.  It is a word that has been properly used to describe animals taken out of horrific & shocking conditions.  One little word....  so many meanings.

In greyhounds, the word "rescue" was introduced to the lexicon to wound people, to hurt and destroy them, to dehumanize them, to place the greyhound racing community in as bad of a light as possible.  The word emerged from "breed rescues" such as Borzoi rescue, which is where abandoned and unwanted Borzoi were taken in and sheltered.

Grey2K Likes Crates at Home...  Crates are Good
Typical Home Crate is 31W x 48L x 34H

The word's connotation is something else. Most people who use it do so simply because it has become part of the general vocabulary. Racing people began the adoption model to "rescue" greyhounds from an older, agrarian culture which saw no reason to keep an animal that had outlived its usefulness, who saw no immorality in humane euthanasia, and did not perceive greyhounds as being necessarily "pets"---and to "rescue" them from the early animal rights zealots (ARZs) who, as John Hoyt of the HSUS said, preferred humane euthanasia to the "warehousing" of retired greyhounds. Early ARZs had portrayed the greyhound as vicious, bloodthirsty and trained to kill, during the great jackrabbit advocacy movement, which had a massive impact on generating a false public perception of the breed, and set racing's attempt at comprehensive adoption back by about a decade.

The people who use the word to harm and injure, and to sustain a negative stereotype, are like those who continually refer to our President using his middle name with emphasis purely to create the same negative effect. The majority of people are tragically misinformed about greyhounds. In today's racing/adoption model, there is no coercion. People willingly give their greyhounds to adoption groups who willingly see to their rehoming. No one forces anything upon anyone. Yet, when people use the term "rescue" it gives the impression that the racing industry had has been bad to them. However, there is a BIG difference between a dog that came off of a track to a dog wandering the streets.... No comparison at all.

Grey2K Calls Crates at Track "Abuse"
What's the difference? Track Crates are 36W x 48L x 36H

The "rescue" terminology, as it applies to racing greyhounds, is the bludgeon of the demagogue. It is used with malicious intent. It is a slur, a slur applied with a very broad brush, on those who do the right thing to the best of their ability. It is a slap in the face to the greatest majority of decent, hard-working, and dedicated folks who go without so their dogs are given every chance at full life before, during and after racing.

For years now, there is a group of money hungry lobbyists in the US that are trying to do away with dog racing. That group is Grey2K.  They started out here in the USA and now they have started working on Australia and the UK. While there are extremists everywhere, this particular group believe greyhounds are forced to race and racing them is cruelty. They prefer that the dogs be allowed to get fat and do nothing. To them, that meager existence is kindness. Grey2K excels at presenting the dogs, fit & trim, happy dogs in the prime of life, as abused and in danger of an imminent death that requires the dog be rescued.

They imply that the racing folks don't care and that they are only in it to "make a buck off the backs of the dogs".  They are propagandists and use their misinformation to pull on the heart strings of potential new income sources, enabling a kind of weird higher purpose for those donating. Personally, I get pretty darn pissed off about the whole thing.  All those wasted dollars would be better served going to actual adoption groups and/or local shelters. 

Words matter.  Words can hurt.  Try to keep that in mind when you generalize.

Yours in greyhounds...

Grey2K, Carey Theil Help Prove Cocaine Problems Very Low in Greyhound Racing

By Dick Ciampa

Grey2K's Executive Director and co-founder Carey Theil helps prove how rare cocaine is in greyhound racing. Today, Grey2K and Carey Theil announced that they discovered 4 more cases of a greyhound testing positive for cocaine.

GREY2K USA on NPR: four more cases of greyhounds testing cocaine positive in Florida, legislature needs to phase out dog racing now (23-28 minute marks).
http://news.wfsu.org/post/capital-report-04-02-2015

We know from Grey2K's 80 page report released earlier this year that there were 16 cases of cocaine found in greyhounds during the 7-year period of January 2008 to the end of November 2014.

So in 7 years and 3 months, we have a total of 20 greyhounds that tested positive for cocaine.

Here are the drug test results from Florida for fiscal year 2008/2009. Benzoylecgonine is cocaine.

Here are the drug test results for Florida for fiscal year 2009/2010

You can see the number of samples analyzed in 2008/2009 were 54,942 and in 2010 the number of samples analyzed were 58,095. The other years weren't available online so I will estimate the number of samples analyzed real low at 40,000 per year for the remaining 5 years for a total of 200,000 for those 5 years. If you add the 200,000 to the 58,095 from 2010 and 54,942 from 2009 and you have a total of 313,037 samples analyzed for those 7 years. That was the time frame Grey2K had 16 cocaine positives for not only Florida, but Alabama also. Now for part of that time Alabama had three tracks running, Victoryland, Birmingham and Mobile. During 2011 Victoryland closed and only the other two tracks were running. We still have to add the first 3 months of 2015 so if we again go with a low number of 40,000 for the year we would add 10,000 for 1/4 of the year 2015 bringing the total number of samples analyzed for the 7 years and 3 months to 323,037.

Now with 20 positives out of 323,037 samples analyzed that give you a percentage of greyhounds testing positive at 0.00619.

The percentage of greyhounds testing positive for cocaine isn't extreme, Grey2K is.

Robert F. Kennedy once said this about extremists,

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

The Poisoned Well

By Dennis McKeon

The purpose of this essay is to call attention to and to deconstruct some of the basic mythology that exists and is rampant on social media, concerning the greyhounds we know and love. This mythology not only misrepresents the history and legacy of the greyhound, but also falsifies what is the norm in greyhound life and existence prior to adoption, sometimes going into erroneous and counter-intuitive detail about things such as diet, parasitology, temperament, care, socialization and the cause and effect of the greyhound’s life as a performing athlete. This can lead to a myriad of misunderstanding among those who are breed novices or novice adopters, and can cause complications and misinterpretations of behaviors when greyhounds are in the challenging process of being habituated to an entirely new life in adoption.

For example, there is a commonly expressed observation that, frankly, simply flies in the face of everything we know to be true about the cause and effect of selective breeding to a specific function, upon a population of dogs.

The vast majority of today's greyhounds are bred to race--and for no other reason. While it is indeed fun for them to simply run, they are driven by nearly 100 years of selectivity and genetically ingrained demand to "lead the pack", which is the object of racing. The only greyhounds who are used for breeding, are greyhounds who showed the most intense desire and drive to lead the pack, and to compete furiously for that privilege.

Greyhounds Racing

While not every greyhound born and who later goes into adoption expresses that as a racer, most of them do, to the best of their ability, and as a matter of inheritance. Now that is a facet of most greyhounds that people who have been misled about the breed, might not be prepared to cope with, should it manifest in some way, and particularly if the greyhound has no athletic outlet for that expression and desire.

The tendency, in light of the litany of misinformation that is readily available to the novice, is to disconnect the individual greyhound from the population of greyhounds--- the population from where all greyhounds emerge, that is the wellspring of genetic diversity and breed adaptation, and which has been engendered and supported by function alone, and the monies it generates.

Unfortunately, the well of perception, regarding racing greyhounds, has been thoroughly poisoned. The toxic mythology, much of it negative and some of it downright hateful, which has been created about the Racing Greyhound, has become so ingrained within the public mind and the mainstream of pop-greyhound culture, that it must be tempting for a novice greyhound adopter to take some or even all of it, without a huge block of salt.

The core of misunderstanding stems from the simple inability of some people to grasp a very basic and logical concept. And that would be the idea that a population of working/sporting dogs, who are bred meticulously and with the highest degree of selectivity, can be perfectly happy, fulfilled and content doing exactly what it is that they have been bred to do for centuries, or an improvisation upon that function---which is what greyhound racing is to hunting and coursing.

And when succeeding at that function is in a large part reliant upon the greyhounds’ optimal physical, mental and emotional well being, and where the humans who care for them are reliant upon that success for their own security and existence, we have achieved equilibrium.

It is simply not true that what we perceive as traditional "pet life" is necessarily the most appealing or satisfactory life for a young greyhound, at the peak of fitness, and driven by millennia of instinct that has been relentlessly honed, generation after generation, for centuries.

Moreover, I would suggest that suppression of such ingrained and genetic demand is not at all in the best interest of the vast and overwhelming majority of greyhounds, and would have significant physical and emotional consequences for the individual, were there no tightly regulated outlet for the immutable demands of DNA, heritable behaviors and collective consciousness.

The periphery of pop greyhound mythology is populated by straw men, who are entirely averse to grasping the holistics of greyhound nature and disposition.

Greyhound Pups Playing Keep Away

Greyhounds, for example, "play" with their littermates at a very early stage, and their play consists of chasing things. This play can be chasing one another, chasing a fur attached to a rope, or a drag lure, or even chasing a lure attached to a whirlygig. Racing and competing with one another is the ultimate and definitive "play expression" of a breed that is driven by desire and design, to do that very thing.

So the inanimate pet toys we buy in the store might very well have no intrinsic appeal to a dog whose derivation of play pleasure comes from chasing down and capturing moving creatures or objects.

As far as I know, there have been no studies done to suggest that the infamous and mythological maladies of "Stair Deprivation Syndrome" or "Glass Door Deficiency" are contagious, or pose any significant existential threat to the population of greyhounds, worldwide.

The very suggestions that racing greyhounds who live on breeding establishments or in kennels, not to mention adopted greyhounds, who happen to live in single story ranch style houses, or in homes with only wooden doors, are in any way suffering from being deprived of stairs or large rectangles of glass, are probably two of the most revealing applications of unreason that I can think of, as it concerns the popular perception of greyhounds--who, incidentally, during their time as racing athletes, have probably never ridden in an automobile, been on a boat, or driven a motorcycle, either.

Deconstructing the pop mythology of the greyhound is of paramount importance, and should be to anyone who wishes for the breed to be completely understood, appreciated and embraced for whom and what they actually are, not what our inner "Walt Disney" imagines they are, or should be.

This litany of nonsense and propaganda has caused inestimable problems for pet owners, who consistently, through no fault of their own, can fail to intuit perfectly normal greyhound behaviors as such, and who are then likely to infer that their dog was in some way abused or mistreated---when nothing of the sort was actually the case. The very idea that the greyhound might pine for his previous, well-structured, mentally and physically stimulating life, as a member of a racing colony of his peers and packmates, is beyond conception for many within the sphere of his retirement.

It is, in many ways, a modern tragedy.

Regardless of which side of the divide we are on, the greyhounds we adopt are racing greyhounds, who have, in most cases, raced. Whether we approve of the business of racing greyhounds never crosses the greyhound's mind. He is what he is, irrespective of business models, human narratives or moral constructs

In any event, it is always to the greyhound's and the adopter's advantage to be informed of what is the "cause and effect" of tightly focused and highly selective purpose-breeding, and what is the existential norm for the majority of greyhounds. Nothing any of us say here can mute the essential nature of the purpose-bred greyhound, or entirely clarify the sometimes difficult process of habituation to life as a pet for the dogs themselves.

But when that process is begun from the vantage point where we have entirely dismissed the possibility that a purpose-bred dog, within a colony of purpose bred dogs, cannot possibly have been perfectly content and fulfilled--that when his adjustment becomes problematic, or his behavior inscrutable, we presume it cannot possibly be because there is now a great void in his life, or because he might actually have preferred things as they were, then we may have distorted his reality in our own minds, to a degree where it can become exponential and holistic--and not to his short or long-term benefit--or to the adopter's.

copyright, 2015

Grey2K - More Hypocrisy!

Grey2K is an organization founded on hypocrisy.

Grey2K complains when a greyhound is humanely euthanized but the President, Christine Dorchak, is a PeTA supporter and has participated in PeTA protests.  Dorchak counts Ingrid Newkirk, who has stated she has personally destroyed adoptable pets, among her friends.  And, in case y'all don't know, PeTA kills just about all of the pets which come into its hands, voluntarily or by unethical means: theft, lies, etc.  PeTA has killed many tens of thousands of animals.

Interesting that Grey2K is ok with crate sizes of 24"W x 36"L and 32"H. Yet, they have a problem with the larger crates at the tracks. Crates that have a mandated size for the track of  
34"W x 42"D x 32"H.  Go figure...  Could it be that they don't have a problem with the smaller crates because that is the size recommended by them and other animal rights zealots such as those at the ASPCA?  See page 2.  http://www.grey2kusa.org/…/Florida_Rule_61D-2.023_Animal_We…

Excerpt from Page 2, FL Rule 61D-2.023 Animal Weelfar

Please remember, those fanatics are claiming that the dogs cannot stand up or lay down comfortably in the larger crate size. 

Grey2K and its supporters complain about racing dog folks "making money off the backs of the hounds", yet they rake in high dollar salaries on those same dogs with lies, innuendo, and propaganda.

Grey2K's monies distribution, including salaries

This pie chart indicates the percentages of salaries & other compensation that the Grey2K President, Dorchak, and Vice President, Theil (her husband), receive from the organization.  Pie chart is based on the 2013 IRS Form 990, which was filed by Grey2K. 

And another outstanding example of the Grey2K hypocrisy is found in the form of Grey2K Director Emeritus, Jill Hopfenbeck DVM.  Dr. Jill is a vet. She also owns and competes with whippets.  Her whippets compete in conformation (breed ring), lure coursing, obedience, and....  get this.....  amateur RACING! 

If Dr. Hopfenbeck is so against greyhound racing, why does she race her whippets???  She's  obviously very proud  of them, as she should be.  Just as the racing people, those she has been trying to destroy for years, are proud of their dogs & their dogs accomplishments, or lack there of.  Talk about a case of  "don't do as I do; do as I say"!  Oh, if you don't believe she races her dogs, Goggle "Hopfenbeck Whippet Racing".  Look for yourself.

Advertisement found in the 2012 Whippet News Annual

There are many more examples of Grey2K's hypocrisy. These, however, are to me the most glaring.

Here's a quote from a racing man, Craig Randle, "Funny how anti-racing people profess their love and caring nature, but they are some of the meanest natured, foul-mouthed, hypocritical people who ever sat in front of a keyboard!"

Yours in greyhounds...

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.

HELP WANTED: GREYHOUND RESCUERS

by Dennis McKeon

Ten thousand Racing Greyhounds in the State of Florida are in presently in imminent danger. This is no laughing matter. These remarkable and gentle animals, who can race at speeds up to 45mph, are currently being used as the political footballs of anti-racing activists, their media sycophants, politicians who are beholden to Casino Corporations which operate casinos with greyhound racing, and those casino-racetrack interests themselves.

Currently, there are two pending pieces of legislation in Florida, which purport to concern themselves with the safety of the Florida’s Racing Greyhounds.

One of these is called the Gaetz Bill, which would mandate the formal documentation and reporting of injuries sustained by racing greyhounds, on a case-by-case basis, to the gaming authorities, any time a greyhound sustains an injury while racing on any of Florida’s greyhound racetracks.

Pictured (l-r): Christine Dorchak, Rep. John Wood (R), Senator Maria Sachs (D), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R), and Carey Theil

The other of these bills is called The Greyhound Safety Act, and it also mandates injury reporting, just like the Gaetz Bill. However, it goes quite a bit deeper than that, to address the actual root causes of injuries.

Specifically, it requires the management of all racetracks in Florida to address the critical issues of racetrack surface maintenance, which has always been their responsibility, as the owners of the racetrack itself. It is upon these racetrack surfaces that all racing injuries occur.

The Greyhound Safety Act would require that racetrack maintenance crews and management work in concert with the University of Florida School of Veterinary Medicine, to upgrade racetrack maintenance protocols, methods and standards to a level that insures maximum safety for the Greyhounds.

It would also mandate that any racetrack which has yet to do so, safeguard their electronic lures, so that they present no shock or concussion hazards to the greyhounds, in the event that a greyhound should come into contact with that machinery during a race.

Not surprisingly, most of the corporations which own the casino-racetracks, or those who own racetracks which do not feature casino gaming, are against the Greyhound Safety Act. It will cost them time, money and man-hours to conform to it. They seem to have instructed their political lackeys and media contacts to support and publicize the essentially impotent Gaetz Bill, which will do absolutely nothing to prevent greyhounds from suffering preventable injuries while racing, but will save them all a lot of hassle, money and commitment.

Ironically, the self-styled, anti-racing, “greyhound protection” groups, and the activist, greyhound “rescue” groups, have yet to step up in support of the Greyhound Safety Act. Though they have long supported injury reporting, they have essentially ignored the Greyhound Safety Act, which includes injury reporting, but adds the teeth of oversight and accountability for the condition of the racetrack itself, and the related racing equipment, to prevent injuries from occurring in the first place.

The sad truth of the matter is, that injury prevention is not on the agenda of big gaming corporations who wish to be rid of greyhound racing, so that they can devote all their resources to casino operation. Even though the only reason they were granted that uncontested sanction to conduct casino wagering was because they were already licensed to operate pari-mutuel wagering on the greyhound races.

Neither is injury prevention on the agenda of the infamous “greyhound protectors”, whose income is derived from portraying racing greyhounds as wretched objects of pity, and accepting tax-free donations to “protect” them from the alleged abuses of racing. Except, that is, when protecting them involves practical legislation designed to prevent injuries. Injuries to greyhounds, you see, and the negative publicity they generate via their media networks, tend to increase their income from donations, quite substantially. Preventing injuries to greyhounds might have prevented them from taking in millions of dollars in pity donations, while providing not one, tangible shred of hands-on, greyhound welfare services.

So we can see, as things are now, there is not one iota of incentive for either casino-racetrack management, which wishes to rid itself of the commitment they made to greyhound racing in order to get permission to operate casinos, or the “greyhound protectors", whose income rises with each and every injury to greyhounds, to want to prevent them from happening. Their friends in the media see to that, by relentlessly, and without context, sensationally reporting on these injuries, as if they occur in a vacuum, and as if there were no such thing as any significant and effective legislation, like the Greyhound Safety Act, designed to minimize them.

The Florida Greyhound Association (of breeders and owners) strongly supports the Greyhound Safety Act.

So, while the word “rescue” has become highly-charged and controversial when used to describe the at-will adoption process that services the racing greyhound, those who still fancy themselves as “rescuers” have a chance to make that a reality.

The greyhounds in Florida truly do need to be rescued--from the machinations of greedy casino corporations, phony advocacy/protection groups, corrupt politicians, and sensationalist, journalist/activists, who all benefit and whose agenda is served by neglect of the racing environment of the racing greyhound--to the point where more, not fewer injuries to greyhounds, are the endgame.

Please contact your state representatives and senators, and demand that they support the Greyhound Protection Act, co-sponsored by Representative Rader and Senator Smith. And give the word “rescue” some real credence.

copyright, 2015