TOP 5 THINGS THAT RACING GREYHOUNDS CARE ABOUT, and DON’T CARE ABOUT

By Dennis McKeon

Racing greyhounds care about:


5. RAIN... They don't like it and would rather shut down their natural, bodily, digestive and elimination functions to the point of spontaneous implosion than to take the chance that by going out into the rain, the raindrops might actually erase them, or sections of them, drip by drip, so that they are left with only half a body--- or a reasonable facsimile thereof, with hundreds of see-through perforations.

4. BONES... Most greyhounds love to chew on and gradually ingest bones. The right types of bones are quite good for them, helping to keep teeth and gums clean and healthy, and providing useful nutrition. Even the most meek and unassuming among them, however, can turn into virtual snarling, ferocious, foaming-at-the-mouth honey badgers, defending their bones from kennel mates --- who are all, of course, unable to take their bone away or gobble it up when they are dozing, because the would-be honey badger and her bone, are in her crate - safe as brick houses - as are all the other honey badgers, along with their own bones.

3. WHERE THEY POOP... The vast majority of greyhounds are quite meticulous and choosy about where they leave their solid excretions, and just the right place must be found and secured, for use and reuse. The observant greyhound trainer can usually tell, after getting to know his dogs, who left what donation where, while picking up the yard. Yes, their lives as greyhound servants are just that tragic.

2. SLEEPING... Having achieved world-wide fame as "45 mile-per-hour couch potatoes" within the adoption community, greyhounds who are actively training and racing whether they are world class racers, or lowly grade Ds, are to sleeping what Mozart was to classical music.

1. BEING FIRST... This normally applies to being fed, walked, galloped, given treats, and especially when it comes time to go to the track to race. "Being first" also alludes to and is related to the Greyhound Question for the Ages:

"What is he or she getting that I'm not getting, and desperately want, no matter what it is?"

In the best case scenarios, "being first" also granslates to their performance style when racing. Most greyhounds want to be "first" when it comes to doing just about anything --- other than the dreaded, and in their minds, often fatal nail trimming.

Racing Greyhounds don't care about:

5. WHAT COLOR the WALLS ARE in THEIR KENNEL..  or whether they could use a fresh coat of paint. Greyhounds don't read Better Homes & Gardens.

4. WHETHER YOU HAVE A HEADACHE and/or DIDN'T SLEEP WELL LAST NIGHT... All greyhounds are sworn, by their dams, shortly after they are born to make as much noise as possible, barking, howling and otherwise carrying on in the mornings, when their caretakers first arrive to greet them. They receive extra credit if one or more of their caretakers happens to be slightly hung-over. If any greyhound fails to live up to that oath, they must be DNA tested to prove they aren't the result of a cross with a Basenji somewhere in their background.

3. WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE... Greyhounds are oblivious to human standards of appearance. They don't care what color your hair is, whether it is cut attractively, or whether or not your clothes are fashionable. All they care about, and what they respond to, is whether you care about them. And, the more you do, the more they will give back to you. Except marshmallows. They don't give them back.

2. WEEKENDS and HOLIDAYS... There are no columns or spaces with numbers to mark the days on the Greyhound Calendar. Each day is represented only by a photo of them. With all due respect to Julius Caesar, you are expected to be there or be square, and to cater to their every whim, regardless of what the month, number, name or the occasion of the day happens to be.

1. HOW YOU "FEEL" ABOUT WHAT THEY DO, or HOW THEY LIVE...  Whether you are a cigar-chomping, daily railbird, or a devout apostle of Peter Singer, racing greyhounds couldn't care less whether you approve or disapprove of what they do, as a matter of expressing themselves in a thousands of years old fashion. They don't care about anyone's high-falutin' ideology, or holier-than-thou talking points, or whether watching them perform hurts your feelings or fills you with inspiration. They know exactly who and what they are, and what they live and breathe to do. You don't have to like it, or approve of it. They most certainly do --- every bit as much as they will approve of having become your pet when they retire.

copyright, 2018

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

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

Tough Questions….No Answers

By Dennis McKeon

Those of you who believe that you are somehow more humane and morally superior to the people in the Greyhound Racing community, have a lot to learn about populations of dogs, and managing them. Each and every individual Greyhound for whom you profess to care so much, has emerged from a unique population of Greyhounds.

Everything you love or may not love about those dogs, is inexorably linked by cause and effect, and by the highly selective process which racing demands that breeders employ, to the well being of that greater population of Greyhounds.

The idea that the cessation of racing and breeding for racing, would not devastate your Greyhound population and all future populations of them, resulting in the loss, forever, of unique and irreplaceable strains and entire families of Greyhounds-- some of whose lineage can be documented as far back as the 18th century--is short-sighted, to say the very least, and hardly more humane than whatever it is you find to be so distasteful about racing itself.

The inconsolable. "ban everything I don't like" activist, who has no capacity or desire to engage in constructive (not destructive) behavior, or to participate in the cultural and material evolution of racing, is essentially promoting "advocacy by extinction", which is not now, nor will it ever be, a humane concept.

Why is there a such gaping disconnect between the individual Greyhound and the population of Greyhounds, from which every individual Greyhound has emerged?

How does one suppose to be any sort of an advocate, and how do you claim the moral high ground, until you mend that disconnect?

These dogs don't suddenly appear from Unicorn dust. They are a result of thousands of years of breeding, and in modern times, dozens of female families and generations of having been bred to race---for nearly a century now. They are the embodiment of all that, the good, the bad, and the faulty.

The Racing Greyhound today, is possibly the most fowardly adapted canine in the world, to its present function. That didn't happen by serendipity. It is the result of a design, a process, a model, where there are inputs (breeding, raising, training, handling) and feedbacks (the results of head to head racing competitions and how they are perceived to enable accurate selectivity) that forged the modern, Racing Greyhound, and which support the population of Greyhounds.

You can't have a thriving, genetically diverse, and highly functional Greyhound, without having a thriving, genetically diverse, highly functional population of them. The Greyhound is a manifestation of his/her genetic wellsprings and their effect upon phenotype, temperament, disposition and function.

Unless you have a better design or method in mind, to support, manage and preserve that Greyhound population--in all its diversity and functionality--your advocacy is simply, when it's all said and done, for the margination of a breed, and nothing more. And by any rational, humane standard, you aren't an advocate at all.

So what are the anti-racing communities' plans---book, chapter and verse---for the future of the Greyhound, and future populations of them, to insure an array of genetic diversity and to maintain the high levels of functionality and stalwart disposition for which the breed is renown and embraced, once racing has been forcibly ceased?

Or will it be every dog for himself, "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya", and your job is done?

Copyright, 2015

HEARTS and MINDS

By Dennis McKeon

Social media has been a boon to those of us who are Racing Greyhound enthusiasts. That’s the case, whether we breed or own active racing dogs,whether we are adopters of retired Greyhound racing athletes, or even if we are only admirers of graceful, powerful and elegant creatures, who are as unique and endearing as they are mercurial and ethereal.

The willing exchange of information is voluminous, generous and instantly forthcoming, relating to all aspects of Greyhound antiquity, history, bloodline, temperament, disposition, care and maintenance--whether about their lives as racers, as breeders, and in the hundreds of thousands, as retired pets. Greyhounds now compete, in retirement, at agility, obedience, lure coursing, and amateur straight racing. More recently, they have been well-cast as therapy and service dogs. Truly, they are a remarkable and diverse breed, with an equally remarkable and diverse ownership base, within and outside of racing--one which transcends many of the identity group barriers that society and media seem to have ordained for us.

There is one, big rub, however. The controversies that have swirled around the Racing greyhound and the business of greyhound racing, for the past half-century and then some, remain infamous, unabated, and bitterly divisive.

Romeo & His Bunny

It used to upset me to the point of distraction, many years ago, to read the various newspaper reports of the era, which insisted that Greyhounds, who were often coursers of Midwestern Jackrabbits prior to embarking on their careers as track racers, were made bloodthirsty and vicious by engaging in this most elemental of their various functions--and that is why they needed to wear muzzles.

I would often read the morning paper while bolting down breakfast, or a reasonable facsimile thereof , sitting on the edge of a crate containing a sweet-natured, doe-eyed, ear-nuzzling female, who would be simultaneously looking over my shoulder--not at the newspaper--but at the donut bag on the grooming bench, knowing there had to be a treat somewhere in there for her. I wonder now, looking back on it, what she might have thought of such an egregious and unenlightened mischaracterization of her, and her brothers and sisters.

No matter. The people with the media bully pulpit, and who wouldn’t have known a Greyhound from Grey Poupon, won the war of words. If you wanted to call it a war, that is. As there was barely any response from those of us who worked our fingers to the bone and our feet to bloody stumps, seven days a week, with no time off for good behavior, caring for, waiting on, and doting over these magnificent but ever-needy, fellow pilgrims. Once in a while, one of the racing folks who had begun the then novel, formal process of adoption, would get a chance at some media exposure, to plead the case of an unfairly stigmatized breed, but the damage, for the most part, had been too deep and too grave. A breed’s reputation had been ruined to protect the pestilence of Jackrabbits.

Fast-forward to the present day, and not a lot has changed in that regard, in spite of the phenomenal popularity of the Racing Greyhound as a pet in retirement. Finally, triumphantly, he has been vindicated by a public, once so grievously misinformed. The pop narrative, nevertheless, is still being spun by those who know and understand the least about him, and who have no future vision for him, beyond the cushions of a sofa.

However, social media has allowed truly informed and Greyhound-knowledgeable people to at least get a word in edgewise, and to reach out to those who sincerely wish to know the truth about their Greyhound’s lives prior to retirement and adoption, and the existential realities of a meticulously bred population of canines, who still have a real purpose, and who are still a supremely functional breed.

Whether one approves of that purpose or not, should be immaterial to the polite and well-modulated dissemination of Greyhound related information or anecdotes, by Greyhound professionals, to the Greyhound’s public. I can’t stress this enough. Like you, I take extreme exception to having been stigmatized as a member of some sort of demented misery and death cult, due to my (former) professional association with greyhound racing as a trainer. Like you, I sometimes have to walk away from the laptop (or turn off the cell phone), when encountering ignorance so profound, that it almost burns the eyes to read the drone-like drivel and sometimes hateful spew.

No one said it would be easy. In that sense, it’s almost like training a litter of green, undisciplined, rowdy puppies, who reflexively go against the grain of every shred of structure and mannerly behavior into which you try to cajole them, and instill within them. As we well know, otherworldly patience is sometimes required.

The truth of the matter is, that social media has given the Greyhound professional the opportunity to undo 50 years of negative stereotypes, and Greyhound mythology. This entails, more than anything else, winning hearts and minds.

Knee-jerk and aggressive, angry responses to false clichés and outrageous generalizations, that we have all heard and read thousands of times, are counter-productive to winning those hearts and minds. They only reinforce the negative stereotypes, and serve as a barrier to the dissemination of the truth, and to the Greyhound’s public reaping the benefit of your most valuable experience.

For every pot-stirrer who is convinced that by reading propaganda and mythology, they have no need to listen to anything you have to say, there are hundreds following along, who will judge your veracity and credibility by how you deal with that sort of provocation. You may be entirely justified in wanting to lash out at the sheer bigotry of it. But those innocent bystanders have not walked a mile in your shoes, and you may very well be the first person they have ever encountered who deviates from that popular and patently false narrative.

There is more at stake here than livelihoods, the security of families and careers. There is an entire population of Greyhounds to consider, and any future populations of them, which will be utterly devastated, should we fail to win enough of those hearts and minds.

Lecture over. Go hug a Greyhound.

copyright, 2015

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

Chucky And Rita.... Their Lives....

By Jason E Hancock

I have recently noticed an increase of negative, anti-racing propaganda being passed around. I was recently called a dog abuser for supporting greyhound racing. A friend of mine, who had never said a word all these years I have been pro-racing, spoke up yesterday. I was told that this person was glad I saved Chucky from the racing world.

Chucky retired from his long and accomplished racing career this past June. He is a full littermate to Rita, who I have had in my home since May 2012. I contacted his racing owner and was allowed to “pre-adopt” Chucky. That means that the owner agreed to let me have Chucky once his racing career was over. Chucky raced 165 races, many at top grade, and several stakes races at Bluffs Run Greyhound Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa. As far as greyhound racetracks go, Bluffs Run is a very competitive racetrack, and Chucky racing 165 races there is an accomplishment in itself. He graded off the track at Bluffs Run and was moved to Dubuque, when it opened in April. He raced another 12 races at Dubuque Greyhound Park before retiring. I have spoken to EVERYONE who was involved in Chucky’s career, and all but the trainer at Flagler in his sister Rita’s career, who also lives with us.

Chucky

I am writing this because I have a personal account about how the racing industry operates and how the people involved in the daily operations in racing care for these magnificent athletes. Because I was told that I rescued Chucky, this is an account of his Chucky’s life thus far……

Greyhound puppies are born on greyhound farms, Chucky and Rita were two of the four born in Janesville, WI on Oct. 1, 2008. They were the result of the breeding of a famous proven sire, Flying Penske, and a brindle and white dam named Gotcha Bobbi Jo.

Greyhound puppies are unique from any other breed in more than one way, but the most noticeable way is that this litter of 4 puppies will grow and play together until they are around a year old. This litter was given the litter number of 48531 by the National Greyhound Association in Abilene, KS. That number was tattooed in their left ear, along with the numbers 108 and a letter from A-D in their right ear. This numbering system serves as a way to track the individual dogs and to insure that the dog racing is in fact that dog. I have been present during the tattoo process and I can attest that it is humane and I would have no problem helping or watching a litter being tattooed again. Once the litter was about a year old they left for training in Abilene, KS from their birthplace in WI. The litter at this time was down to three. The “B” puppy in the litter injured her leg on the farm and was sent out to adoption at around 9 months old. As the pups grow they begin to play rougher and, occasionally, they do hurt each other. That fourth pup lives happily with no problems with a family in MO. The three that went to training were sprinted, learned what the lure was, taught how to break the box, and how to behave in the racing world.

Rita

During training in Abilene, KS, Chucky showed good times and was a strong runner, so he went to Bluffs Run in Iowa. Rita was sent to Victoryland Greyhound Park in Shorter, AL, and their sister, Abby, was sent to Flagler Greyhound Park in Miami, FL. Chucky was by far the best pup in the litter, he raced top grade at Bluffs Run from August 2010 to September 2011. During that time, he won a stakes race and made the finals in two other major stakes. Chucky then raced as a solid B/C racer until February 2013. He was moved to Dubuque after grading off at Bluffs Run in March 2013. He gave it his best at Dubuque but at this point in his career he was 4.5 years old and racing against 18 month old pups heading up the grades, Chucky didn't have the stamina he once did and faded at the end of the race. His trainer in Dubuque is a great trainer who cares about his pups. He talked to Chucky’s racing owner and the decision was made to go ahead and retire him before he had a career ending injury. Chucky is a professional athlete, which is obvious by his career. I am proud of my retired racers past careers, no matter how good or poor they performed.

How did he become this amazing athlete?…..partially because of genetics but mainly by being treated with love, respect and tender loving care. Once Chucky’s racing career was over, he was not “abandoned” or “thrown away”. The truth is that the owner of his racing kennel paid his neuter and vet fees so that when I arrived in Dubuque to pick him up, he was ready. When I picked him up, he looked great! He was clean; had no fleas; had been vetted; and was very happy in the kennel setting.

The people in the racing industry DO care about the dogs! Racing greyhounds are neither abused, mistreated, nor are they malnourished. My retirees here at home have been called skinny and underfed, because I keep them within no more than 3 lbs over their racing weight.

I have visited MANY kennels at several tracks and in more than one state. I have yet to find a kennel I would not leave my dogs in. I have been on more than one farm; again, I have never seen anything that would cause me any concern. There are several trainers and racing kennels with pages on Facebook, look them up and see their pictures…..the dogs are SOOOO happy. If you own a retired racing greyhound and think that your hound was mistreated……do your homework! Go visit a track or a kennel! Bring your dog to a track; see what happens to your laid back couch potato once they hear the lure. You will have a nut case on a leash, who will no longer acknowledge that you exist! It is something they love to do! I will defend the trainers, owners and tracks that I have firsthand knowledge of doing the right thing, and I would call out anyone not doing the right thing…..but so would the trainers who do right. There are some great people in this industry, and a lot of great dogs!!! I have thanked everyone involved in Chucky and Rita’s career, and I will do it again! And to complete the litter, Abby had a short racing career in Miami and was retired and lives with a family in FL.

Once last thing; Retired racing greyhounds are not rescued, they were not mistreated and ate better than most humans. My dogs are adopted, more like they adopted me truthfully! Thank you to all involved in the greyhound racing industry!

Teachable Moments

By Dennis McKeon

There is a really ugly video being circulated by various individuals, which graphically depicts a pack of greyhounds killing a Coyote. This video, to me, has no redeeming value. It doesn’t focus on or celebrate the mechanics or dynamics of the chase, but concentrates only on the visceral and brutal depiction of the kill. 

However, we would be loathe in missing the opportunity here to seize and make use of a teachable moment. Despite what many may have learned or inferred when reading the litany of misinformation and disinformation regarding the breed on the internet, Racing Greyhounds are purpose-bred dogs. 

The traditional parlance for that would be "game dogs". They are very efficient hunters and killers of vermin, by evolution and by nature. That is a proficiency and predisposition imprinted upon their DNA. It has been reinforced by nearly a century of highly selective race-breeding.

This doesn't mean that the dogs are mean-spirited or vicious. What it means is that when they see something which even vaguely resembles what they have been chasing and hunting since time immemorial, they are hard-wired to react decisively and instinctively to that stimulus (hence, they chase the lure at the racetrack).

It's not an easily controllable behavior for most of them. Unfortunately, for small dogs and other creatures who have been mistaken by greyhounds as “prey”, this perfectly natural and instinctive behavior has lead to serious misadventure.

Now, like everyone else, I enjoy reading the stories of goofy and endearing behavior that many greyhound pet owners relate to us online. But we can never forget that just below the paper thin skin of that loveable, sweet-natured, couch potato you see draped elegantly across the sofa cushions, beats the heart of a highly efficient "game" dog, an otherworldly athlete, who is quite capable of committing mortal acts easily.

Please exercise all appropriate caution with your greyhounds when encountering other or smaller dogs and animals. While it is understandable, with the realms of greyhound misinformation and deliberate disinformation out there, that one might have a somewhat skewed if not completely whimsical view of a greyhound's essential nature---but they are what their true nature says and demands that they be, and they have many dimensions. Take my word for it, you don’t want to be re-running in your imagination, your own version of that disgusting video, for the rest of your life.

A Simple Way to Dispell Anti-Racing Mythology

By Dennis McKeon

You’ll need only a kennel full of Racing Greyhounds, one anti-racing zealot and a camera phone.

Courtesy of Rachel Hogue

I used to dread it when friends of mine (or anyone who was a comparative stranger to the dogs) would come to the kennel for a visit. Not that I didn’t want to see them. I did. But they would invariably insist on coming out into the turnout pens with the dogs, and then I’d have to worry about them being smothered to death with dog-love and unbridled enthusiasm. I think most kennel operators and trainers shared my conflict there. You love to show off your dogs, but people who simply aren’t used to the sheer power of the “surge” of a small colony of hounds, can unknowingly present a danger to themselves. Back in the days of heavy wire muzzles, there was always the chance of a fat lip, a broken nose, or in the worst case scenarios, a knocked-out tooth or two, courtesy of those hounds who would suddenly stand on hind legs to get eye-to-eye with their new visitor. Until one has been the “new human” (and thus the sole object of desire in the entire world) for 25-30 greyhounds, simultaneously, you really have no idea of just how friendly they can be, or how competitive they truly are, even when it comes to seeking your acquaintance and friendship.

 Only the real troopers could put up with more than a few minutes of this mass-marketed bonhomie, and even they could become quickly exhausted with being the most important thing in the universe, however temporarily, to a kennel full of muscled-up, smotheringly affectionate, finely conditioned athletes.

I’ve always figured this is why so many anti-racing activists say they’d never want to go near a racing kennel or a breeding establishment. Have you ever noticed that? None of them could possibly have any idea of what they’re talking about, or what they’re missing, because they’ve never been to a racing kennel or a breeding facility. Huh? That’s right, they haven’t a clue. Most of them know only what they’ve read on the internet, courtesy of extremist and donation-seeking propagandists.

Courtesy of Rachel Hogue

It would shatter many of them to actually have to come to grips with their own prejudices, looking into the faces of these happy, gregarious and ebullient greyhounds, while trying desperately to keep from being overwhelmed or knocked to the ground with unabashed greyhound affection. They would realize at once, in their hearts of hearts, that they have been grievously unfair to these remarkable dogs. They’d have to admit to themselves that they were wrong and/or that they had been lied to.

Because abused, brutalized and poorly socialized dogs don’t unquestioningly shower their affections and friendliest attentions on complete strangers. Dogs just don’t work that way. Even the most demure, reserved, timid, tightly-wound Omega greyhound personalities can become beguiling, impish coquettes on their home turf, at the prospect of making a new friend.

I challenge anyone who is a true believer in the popular, false anti-racing narrative, to arrange a visit to kennel full of actively racing greyhounds, and to partake of the turnout festivities just once. And let the kennel operator or the trainers film your introduction to them. You won’t soon forget it. And you’ll know the truth, and then so will everyone else.

It couldn’t be any simpler, or more logical.

The Importance of a Population

By Dennis McKeon

I wish some of the late racing professionals who began the process and who envisioned the concept of comprehensive adoption for retired racing greyhounds, could see the way things have worked out. No doubt, they’d be pleased.

It was a quantum leap of faith back in the late 70s and early 80s, to imagine that racing greyhounds, a breed that had been publicly and raucously vilified by the jackrabbit crusaders and their media allies, could someday have become the sensation they are today in adoption.

This was a time when most young greyhounds, before they were trained to chase a lure on the training track, were allowed to course after live game, specifically the pestilence of jackrabbits. Even though a good “jack” can run a good greyhound right off his legs, even though greyhounds have been chasing hares since prehistoric times, this method of pest-control provoked an outcry from the animal rights activists of the era. The crusade to outlaw the coursing of live jackrabbits was successful in some states, but at a great cost to the greyhound.

He was said, by those activist minions of ignorance, to be “trained to kill”, and to be “bloodthirsty” and “vicious”. The public lapped up this nonsense, regurgitated by the old media at every opportunity. Needless to say, the great jackrabbit crusade and its attendant propaganda inhibited the progress of those early adoption pioneers, who were not only attempting to evolve culture within the racing community, but who now had to deal with re-educating a thoroughly misinformed public.

Fast forward to the present day, and we see the same sort of ignorant and willful misinformation prevalent in all forms of media. The most galling aspect of this mythology, to any of us who ever have worked 24/7, 18 hours a day, seven days a week, caring for greyhounds, would have to be the accusation that racing greyhounds are “abused” and treated cruelly, as a matter of routine.

This is preposterous for many reasons, not the least of which would be that greyhounds are very expensive, and require a significant financial commitment to be raised to the stage where they are track-ready, and finally able to win back some of that investment capital. The fact that this blanket condemnation still has traction, even as thousands of retiring greyhounds each year beguile and fascinate their enchanted, new adoptive owners, is a testament to the power of pure propaganda and shameless bias in media and pop culture.

The idea that such universally abused and cruelly treated dogs, who are not even “bred to be pets”, could have become the pet sensation of the canine world, flies in the face of everything we know to be true about canine disposition and temperament. Greyhounds have been universally acclaimed for their sweet and loving nature, and their unassuming, level temperament. These and other attributes manifest within a population, as a cause and effect of bloodlines, breeding, raising, training, handling and environment. Greyhounds, like all other canines, are the sum total of all these things. The racing greyhound is who he is, with all his affections, charms, instincts, quirks and foibles, because of his racing genetics, his racing background and his racing life experience--not in spite of them, as popular greyhound mythologists would have us believe.

It should go without saying, that making the complete life adjustment from racing athlete to family pet is no mean feat. Yet retired greyhounds do just that, by the thousands each year, to near unanimous acclaim. It could hardly be inferred by anyone of even modest critical thinking ability, that horribly abused and traumatized dogs would, without so much as a pang of conscience, make it their first order of business when beginning their lives as pets, to commandeer the living room couch.

Even though, when entering their new lives as pets, they are without their pack mates for the first time in their lives, they adjust. Even though they are facing brave, new, challenging and intimidating objects, environments and routines for the first time in their lives, they adjust. Even though they are among strange humans, whose voices, commands and mannerisms are unfamiliar to them, still they adjust. And they are able to adjust, because they have learned to trust the humans they have encountered during their lives. That has been the essence of our relationship with canines, from antiquity to the present day. Most retired racing greyhounds are charismatic exemplars of it.

Now, without a doubt, there are timid, nervous and skittish greyhounds, for whom this process of completely re-habituating themselves is more problematic. Some of these are “Omega” personalities, who, within their pack, were always the followers. Some of them are just high-strung, and hard-wired to be reactive. Much of greyhound temperament is highly heritable, and “racing temperament” is a fundamental feedback that breeders use to select which greyhounds will be bred. Yet we must remember that “pet-ability” is never a concern or a consideration among greyhound breeders in the process of selectivity, and “petability” has nothing whatsoever to do with racing ability.

Greyhounds are bred to be bold, tenacious, courageous and athletic race competitors. Some of the most dead game, aggressive and totally dominant greyhounds who ever set foot on a racetrack, however, were edgy, or skittish, or nervous submissive sorts when not competing. Yet many greyhounds of this type were also quite successful as breeders. Hence, those traits they expressed, both on and off the racetrack, were passed onto sons and daughters, and so to future generations.

One of the reasons for this Jekyl/Hyde conundrum we find in some greyhounds, is what they call in Ireland and the UK, “keen-ness”. The much-desired attribute of “keen-ness”, that is, being “keen” to chase and compete, is rooted in the greyhounds’ heightened powers of observation, his acute awareness of his environment and his surroundings, and his natural place in the evolutionary scheme of things as a sight, chase, catch and kill hunter.

“Keen” greyhounds are hyper-sensitive to everything going on around them. They are super-focused. They are the alpha-predator in any given moment. They are always on the lookout for something that offers the possibility of a chase, or anything that constitutes a threat. In an unfamiliar environment fraught with novelty, this aptitude can sometimes be paralyzing, or even render them oblivious to their owners. The latter situation is especially so, when something they feel might be fair game is interpreted by them as being afoot.

The Racing Greyhound pack is all things canine, from the stalwart alpha personalities, to the ebullient and envelope-pushing betas, right on down to the timid, supplicating, sometimes even pathologically fearful omega types. His diverse and ancient bloodlines assure us that there will be a plethora of personality types in the racing and adoption colonies, none of those personalities the result of fashion or fancy, and all of them sharing the common heritage of pure, unadulterated functionality, breathtaking speed and thrilling athleticism.

In pop culture today, the Greyhound holds a unique place. He is widely viewed as a victim of human greed and ruthless exploitation. This, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, in the form of hundreds of thousands of loving, well-adjusted, retired greyhound pets. This is still the misconception, despite the fact that not one greyhound from among that remarkable population has ever been bred to be a pet. The Racing Greyhound is still regarded by many low information and/or propagandized enthusiasts, as an object of pity, rather than the brilliantly adapted athlete and superbly tempered hunter he is.

Some even wring hands and gnash teeth over the supposed indignities, cruelties and abuses poor little Snowflake has been subjected to, without truly knowing anything about their greyhound's history. Their concern is touching, but most times unfounded in the greyhound’s reality.

Nevertheless, there is a chasmic “disconnect” among many greyhound lovers, between the individual greyhound(s) they love so dearly and the greyhound population. Without a genetically diverse, splendidly adapted and supremely functional population, we cannot have an individual greyhound who expresses those many attributes that emerge from such a population—which are the very things that endear the greyhound to all of us. At the cellular level, your greyhound is the embodiment of nearly a century of the genetics, the inputs and the feedback of racing alone. Racing is the one and only thing that supports the Racing Greyhound population.

When a population contracts to the point whereby irreplaceable DNA strains and entire female families of greyhounds are lost forever, we have irreparably damaged that population. For each one lost, we have reached the point of no return. The more a population contracts, the more problematic the breeding of sound and well-adapted specimens becomes.

So while it is heartwarming to see all the love and concern that is showered upon individual greyhounds by their adopters, we have yet to see that concern translated, within the popular greyhound culture, to the greyhound population--which is the wellspring of all greyhounds, past, present and future.

Those original pioneers of greyhound adoption understood this unbreakable interconnection. They cared for the individual greyhound, but understood the crucial importance of the population, and from where, how and why the objects of their affections came to be.

You can’t have one without the other.

PeTA & Grey2K

I'm sure ya'll remember the Grey2K video of the kennel at Tucson Greyhound Park (TGP)? You know which one...  the one that was taken in the dark at one of the kennels...  the one where the 'videographers' told the watchman to not turn on the lights because the cameras worked better in the dark?  That video was so "scandalous"...  After all, the greyhounds had beds, in which they were laying, and were in the dark - at night - so they could sleep!  How dare the Grey2K goons disturb their good night's sleep!

Anyway, some of those "abused" greyhounds from Tucson have gone into adoption.  Those dogs have been making the rounds and they are beautiful! One, Tonic, is a lovely boy and he came from the very kennel that they filmed.  I have come to know Tonic and I can pretty much assert that he was sleeping in his condo when the goons came in with their flashlights to film their epic contribution to the film world. Tell me, if things are so horrible for the dogs and they have been so abused, why is this boy one of the happiest dudes anyone has ever seen?  Why is he so generous with his kisses and why does he have such a giant greyhound smile?  Tell me...  please tell me...  this is something I really, really do not understand....  Would a dog which has been beaten and abused, as asserted through the years by Grey2K and its minions, would a greyhound that has, in general, been grossly mistreated be this friendly?   Uhm... not only NO, but HELL NO!  I'd expect the dog to run as if his tail is on fire at the sight of a human!

You know, I always get comments on how friendly, calm & peaceable my dogs are. All of them have always been Momma's "kids" but the girls are the most confident and outgoing dogs I have ever seen and that includes peoples' much loved pets, show dogs, all of them.... The girls really like to work the crowds. I'd hate to see how the average Joe treats their dogs if these dogs are abused. Why?  Because, you simply don't get temperament like this by poor and abusive handling.

This is something that I've been preaching ever since before Grey2K came out with this stupid video. The only thing that that "investigative team" did was narrate the video in such a way as to make it sound bad. You know, a couple of amateurs with a video camera does not make an investigative team. However, that is the Grey2K tactic learned from her PeTA mentor, Ingrid Newkirk.

PeTA is known for using such tactics. Back in 1994, PeTA hired Michele Rokke (founder of Animal Protection New Mexico) as an “investigator.”  Here's a for instance...

Between June 1996 & April 1997, Rokke was in the employ of Howard Baker, DVM in New Jersey and conducting an undercover PeTA "investigation."  Two months after her employment ended, June 1997, Rokke filed charges against and accused Baker of 16 counts of animal cruelty, beginning with a dog that was treated at the clinic two days after she started her job in June 1996 and ending with a dog seen by Baker in April 1997.

The case was based on the uncorroborated testimony of Rokke, who surreptitiously videotaped the doctor and shot as much as 200 hours of tape with a camera hidden in her handbag. That tape was edited to about three minutes by PeTA and sent to national media.  The edited videotape was played before and during the trial on local and national news programs, tabloid shows, and syndicated talk shows. Throughout the nearly three-year ordeal, Baker and his wife were harassed and received death threats.

Baker was convicted in lower court in July 1999 but the conviction was overturned in April 2000 on appeal. Howard Baker DVM was exonerated of all charges of cruelty by New Jersey Superior Court, and the New Jersey Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners reinstated his license to practice 12 days after the court's April 14 decision.

The appeals court ruled that:

1. the testimony of the state's star witness was not believable;
2. the testimony of the defendant's witnesses was believable;
3. Baker's actions did not amount to cruelty under the law; and
4. the connection between the witness and PeTA tainted her testimony.

This is not the only case in which this has happened. Rokke has been involved in other illegal investigations including actions against Boys Town National Research Hospital, Huntingdon Life Sciences, and a North Dakota horse ranch. There are more.

Anyone who is really into dogs knows & understands that much of dog temperament is genetic, so behavior is not really proof of anything. There are spooky dogs that have never been abused, while some dogs from truly horrific environments and conditions still wag their tails and solicit attention from every human they meet. I hate when people see a nervous or shy dog and assume it means abuse. Genetic temperament and early socialization are huge influences. Even fears of things like loud voices, raised hands, fast movements, NONE of that is "proof" of abuse.

I take my dogs, my pets, for walks.  On one such walk, with a couple of them, I was stopped by several people that we came across.  One, in particular, assumed that my shy girl was abused at the track.  She was associating it with her being beaten and "tortured".  Standard comment, "Oh you poor BABY!  You were so abused that you are TERRIFIED of people!  You POOR, POOR, THING!"  and then continuing to me, "Isn't it criminal what they do to these poor dogs at the track?"

Imagine her shock & surprise when I told her that the shy girl never raced and that I had had her the longest and that her running mate had only just retired a couple of weeks earlier. The woman did not know how to respond.  It blew their race track trauma theory right out of the water. I told her, "The dogs just have different personalities... that's all."

Anyway, if you take nothing away from most of this post, I would hope you'd think about this...

1. Grey2K USA and its founders are very closely aligned with PeTA & Ingrid Newkirk.  
2. PeTA and its followers are not above extreme propagandizing to achieve their goal and neither is Grey2K, up to & including editing to present an very distorted and most inaccurate representation of "the truth".  In fact, their edits are so extreme that the resulting information is as far from the truth as the earth is from the sun!
3. Both Grey2K & PeTA are for the extermination of the working animal, the animal with a job.
4. Both Grey2K & PeTA interchange "animal welfare" and "animal rights" descriptions, intentionally confusing the public.
5. Grey2K & PeTA are NOT animal welfare groups.  Neither operate as shelters & both are LOBBYING groups.
6. PeTA cares so much about animals that it kills 98% of the animals it takes into its supposed shelter in VA.

I'm sure there's more that you can take away, but this is just the beginning...

Yours in greyhounds

History

There is a lot of history associated with greyhounds and greyhound racing. There are some great dog names- Downing, Dutch Bahama, Real Huntsman, Oklahoman... All that history is in danger of being lost as the "old timers" retire and pass on... if Grey2K USA succeeds in destroying greyhounds, greyhound people, and greyhound racing.

Here is a post that Dennis (A.K.A. "Rockingship") posted on Global Greyhounds on October 3, 2003 on a thread entitled, "The State of the Stud Business the Next Three Years":

"Don Cuddy always said that Downing was the fastest 550 yard dog he ever saw, and he saw a lot of them. There were a select group of greyhounds of whom he always spoke reverentially....Downing was one of them. Downing was called "Handyman" because he was always by Jim Frey's side as a youngster--always "handy".

As a racer, he was intolerant of other greyhounds, except for Chito, who, for some reason, he liked. Chito himself was a good grade A at Revere at the time. And he was Downing's turnout partner during the time Downing campaigned in New England.

I remember one day after the morning's festivites were nearly over, there was a telephone call to the kennel. I could hear Don's voice faintly from the kitchen....."....oh Jay-sus.....when did it happen?"....I heard some homilies and some condolences, he said goodbye and hung up.

Downing

".......well, he's gone". I could see in his eyes that Don himself was now somewhere else, in his own mind.....watching a long red brindle blur accelerate into the first turn as if he alone were not subject to the burdens of gravity, and unfazed by the shackles of his own flesh...Downing's only real competition, if the truth be known, was his own mortality.

These are my personal recollections of Downing's Amercian Derby win.....

And guys...I remember Downing's American Derby .....he was a prohibitive favorite....after making the switch to the other side, he had literally run away and hid from the best dogs that the country's elite kennels might offer up as competition---or as sacrifice----it hadn't really mattered..........

He was a sharp breaker, and an astonishing turn runner-----and though nearly 80 lbs, and as long as the Kansas horizon is wide----he could literally run "under the rails"....and accelerate into, through and off the turns----and if, by some stroke of serendipity, you found yourself ahead of him, on the rail and in his way----he would put you over the rail to take his line.

So the ONLY way he could lose, was if he broke down, or if he missed his break.....and you know what?...... he missed his break----missed it by a mile....and he came out with his nose in the dirt, stumbling---nearly falling----and the entire field easily out-trapped the fast-trapper.

There was a collective gasp from the incredulous crowd. Luckily, the 2 lane had not quite closed up on him.

Gifted athlete that he was---in the blink of an eye---he somehow, miraculously, managed to right himself----and exploded through the hole which had remained open to him.

He had seized the lead before they even hit the turn, and drew off to a commanding advantage as he poured it on---like a soundwave.... through the stretch, around the curtain turn, and past the toteboard-----his speed was enthralling, unlike anything I had ever witnessed----it thumped right through your chest, and took your breath away... like the music of a runaway locmotive......yet due to his early miscalculations and exertions, he was pretty much spent at the top of the lane....all alone.......and all done.....

He had lost his action, and his stride was shortening with each diminutive leap forward...and at precisely that most desperate of moments----that sobering, split-second before the shattering of every illusion---- the great stayer---Malka---had begun to uncork her prodigious run.....which was as deep as the Pacific...and at once, as powerful and unfathomable.

The insurmountable lead was shrinking fast now, to about 6 lengths entering the final straight---- and Malka appeared to have caught the jetstream itself, as she zeroed in on him----with Downing laboring mightily, just to keep a straight line----the deafening roar of the 12,000 or so spectators, who had come to see a legend ...in his own and their own time... lent an air of unreality to the whole, desperate spectacle...

And time itself had become glacial, as it passed...as they played out that age-old struggle.....and... with the one, impossible, outrageous, colossal surge ---Downing lunged for the wire....the ghosts of Real Huntsman, Oklahoman and On the Line were awakened from their eternal reveries by the sheer genius of it.....to rightly bear witness to this galvanizing moment, for once and for all time ... as Malka, a burgeoning, bursting tidal wave now ----bore down on him, cresting, from mid-track to his flank.... closer and closer she rolled.....

That he managed, somehow, to hold on---by a dissipating 3/4 of a length or so---was the true measure of his faultless courage and his supernatural greatness....Malka was past him a couple of jumps after the wire, and clear by 3 as they ran up to the curtain.

It was the only moment in his life---the very instant when he had actually grasped his immortality----- that he had ever appeared to be mortal ."

I searched long & wide for video of Downing's 1977 American Derby and I could not find any. However, I found the little gem below that encompasses much more of the American Derby history... It gives a run down of all the winners, to date. You see, when greyhound racing ceased in New England, the American Derby ceased. It was last won in 2007.  Happily, after that hiatus, the race will once again be held this year. Yeah!!!!



Grey2K and its minions love to crow that they are succeeding in shutting down the "cruelty of greyhound racing".  They are not shutting down anything that is cruel. They are destroying history and destroying people. That is what they are so proud of...  destruction & hate.

Retired greyhounds make such great pets because of how they are raised. If it weren't for greyhound racing and the people to whom these dogs are constantly exposed & socialized with, the dogs would not be what they are.  Greyhounds are what they are because of racing...  If racing goes away, then so will the dogs that we all know & love.

Remember, extinction is forever.

Yours in greyhounds...

Another Adopter Speaks...

Five years ago I hated racing, I had never seen a race, but I hated racing. I had read about it, I had heard stories, I hated racing and wanted it to end. But then, I had a really opinion changing experience that really opened my eyes.

My first Greyhound, Bracken came off the track in Lincoln and had the furriest butt possible. He spend a number of years in the various kennels was a healthy, well put together, lovable boy. It was only after his retirement that his teeth started getting bad, and I didn't know enough to catch it. He needed to have a yearly dental because all we fed was dry food and it caches on the greyhounds teeth and thus causes tarter and bad gums. They have very dry mouths and the dry food we feed as pets does not help this. We lost Bracken 1 year ago (almost) during a dental procedure due to anesthesia.

After we had Bracken for about two years we decided he needed a "friend" and along came Mindy (racing name: Puzzle Patch). Mindy was still an almost 14 month old pup when her world changed and she came to live with us. Along with her came all of her paperwork and a lovely note from her kennel trainer and assistant trainer telling me all about her, what she likes, what she doesn't, and how to handle her and get her used to retired life. Up until that time I always thought the worst. My vet told me the dogs where starved, they had miserable diets, and so on. But Mindy came with such great paperwork and introductions.

Mindy aka "Puzzle Patch"

That summer (2 years ago June) I decided to learn on my own. I took Mindy's paperwork and I drove out to the farm she was born at in Abilene, KS. I walked onto the farm, un-announced, showed them her paperwork. and was promptly given a full tour of the farm. I was impressed. Everyone was happy and well taken care of and full of life. I was shown the food and it is almost like stew meat we would find in the store. I stayed in Abilene, KS for 3 days and toured about another 5-6 farms and met the most caring and wonderful people I have ever met. Yes, there is 1 idiot in the mix but he will be gone eventually and he did not want to give me a tour. But there are idiots in every industry, look at our government. Anyways, I left Abilene and drove South.

Next stop, a farm in OK, same reception, same result, and same opinion of the people. At this point word had gotten around of what I was doing and I started getting cell phone calls from people at Southland Greyhound track. Mindy had been there a very short time and I wanted to visit. 7 kennel owners called me and told me that they had left a pass for me at the security guard shack and I was welcome to stop by un-announced any time. So, I did. I waited 2 days (even though I was 1 day away) and went at 6am in the morning. I stayed all day. Most of the kennels I visited you could actually eat off the floor and I could have built sand-castles in the turn-out pens. I was given access to the dogs, I was allowed to take them for a walk, and I was encouraged to interact. I think I was mauled two or three times by 60 dogs in a turn-out pen. Again, I left feeling very good. BTW - very few bald butts and very few bad teeth. I did see toys in many crates, I saw treats and milk-bones. I did not see ANY abuse - I would have reported it if I did.

I refused to tell them at Southland where I was heading next since I really wanted to surprise someone. Next stop was Jacksonville, FL. Mindy had spent a short time there and I wanted to see how she had lived. I snuck onto the compound by visiting the adoption kennel and taking a right instead of a left as I was leaving. I was dressed in an Orange Park T-Shirt and believe it or not was welcomed into several kennels until I was booted off the complex as I was not licensed by the state to be there ( I now understand the reasons and can accept that). I saw happy dogs, happy people, and the dogs are not trying to chew there way out of there crates. This whole thing was very confusing for me because I had read and been told so much of the opposite. As I was being escorted off the compound a trainer came running over and asked if I would be his guest at the evening races. He said he would make sure that I had some company while I was there and told security to leave me alone. He gave me a map to the track and told me that he would find me.

I then attended my first ever greyhound race. Sure enough he found me, he had called in one of his assistants to take care of his dogs and he spent the evening explaining all the procedures to me and the racing. It was great. As I was standing outside the paddock watching the dogs get inspected for any problems by the track vet one dog caught my eye. A little jumpy dog, by jumpy I mean she was excited to be there. She was on everyones shoulders, licking, hugging, etc. Everyone liked her and stopped to give her kisses and scratches. I saw 2 marshmallows slipped to her. OK, she went and ran her race. Didn't come in first, didn't come in last, but someplace in the middle. I'll get back to her a bit later. She walked right over to her trainer and jumped up on her shoulders and and licked her face, sort of like "mommy did you see that." Her trainer, who I now know as Carrie, rubbed her down, got her fresh water, and really took care of her before finding her a shady spot under a tree to lay down in and rest.

I headed home to digest my trip and what I had seen. The only thing that I can chalk it up to is there has been a drastic change in racing over the last 10-15 years. The tracks of the 80's are gone (thank God) and the welfare of the racers seems to be a primary concern now. I made a lot of acquaintances and some have turned into friends. Christopher Greib is probably one of the top, most caring trainers out there. I would entrust any one of my dogs to him. He now works on a farm in Abilene, KS. and is a wealth of knowledge.

I came away with a different attitude. Again, there are idiots and bad people in every walk of life and it's these bad people that always make the news. The same is with Greyhound racing. Most involved are good, and hard working people. THey have the dog's best interest at heart - they have to. Only happy dogs and well taken care of dogs excel and succeed.

Peanut aka "BL Mary Go Round"

Back to my little pup at Orange Park.... well, I watched, and waited, I got in touch with her owner and trainer, and November 2010 I got the email I was waiting for. Peanut was ready to retire and come home. Peanut (BL Mary Go Round) had had an impressive career at Dairyland in WI, Orange Park, Naples, Miami, and finally OP again and had reached 4 years old and her trainer felt she had raced enough. No injuries, just ready to retire. I drove down and brought home my third former racer.

I have now made 2 trips to Abilene, 6 more to FL, visited countless tracks, moved dogs from tracks to retirement, and more. The only abuse and unhappy dogs I have ever seen are the ones that I pick up from adopters who no longer want them. I have never gotten an unhappy dog from any racing situation.

Peanut, Mindy, Bracken (RIP) have all continued to race in amateur racing through LGRA events. After Bracken passed away the house was empty and 3 months later we took in a bounce from another group who was 15 pounds overweight and needed TLC. His name is Ranger (Racing name: Army Ranger). He is now back at his racing weight, now a happy, bouncy, 8 year old and is doing great. Again, the only problems I have seen with greyhounds are caused after the track.

Ranger aka "Army Ranger"

Full disclosure is also needed. Last January (2011) I decided to take one of the farmers I met up on an offer of a 50% ownership in a track puppy. I am leaving on Saturday to drive to Abilene to watch her compete in the Spring Meet at the NGA for the first time. From there she will spend a few more months training in Abilene and then probably head to Orlando, FL where a trainer I met on my journey will be taking care of her. When she is done, or if God forbid she gets hurt, she will be coming home to a doggy bed here in CT. But, I hope that I can watch her having fun doing what is her instinct to do - chase fast moving objects and playing with the rest of the pack. Look back in history this is what greyhounds have done even before racing was invented.

Check out http://allaboutgreyhounds.org/ for more information and pictures. You will also, starting Saturday night, be seeing a blog of my Spring Meet trip.

Sorry this was so long.
-Chris