We’d like to believe that certain forms of sadistic entertainment are a
thing of the past, such as dogfighting, cock fighting and bear baiting. While
the public endorsement of such blood sports has declined, they are far from being
a thing of the past; underground fighting rings are frequently raided by
police, while other exercises of animal cruelty are publicized to audiences who
lack knowledge of what’s going on behind the scenes. One of these blood sports
is greyhound racing.
Greyhounds are an ancient breed thought to have originated in Egypt.
Sometime before 900 A.D., they were brought to England by traders, and later
brought to America by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. They are the fastest dog
breed in the word, able to run up to 40 miles per hour. They are intelligent
dogs with a gentle, laid-back disposition, and are generally good with
children. Because they are often timid, early socialization is important. Their
coat is smooth and short, therefore easy to groom. Aside from a brisk daily
walk, they are relatively low maintenance and make wonderful pets.
In pop culture, racing greyhounds are often portrayed as pampered pets of
the upper class that revel in racing and win big trophies. In reality, the
daily existence of a racing greyhound is no picnic.
These dogs spend the majority of their lives in crates, pens or fence
enclosures, with limited human contact, for 18-22 hours a day. Bedding in these
enclosures are things like shredded paper or patches of old carpets. Many
tracks use wooden crates, which are not only fire hazard but are also hard to
clean; as a result they are often urine-soaked and unsanitary.
Animal welfare investigators
often find the greyhounds infested with fleas and ticks, carrying potentially
deadly diseases. Rescued greyhounds more often than not test positive for worms
and parasites—illness that are easily preventable with vaccinations. Dermatitis
is also common, along with bad teeth and gums. The dogs also often suffer from
untreated injuries, such as missing or broken toes, broken hocks and musculoskeletal
injuries.
Not only that, thousands of wild and domestic rabbits are killed in the
greyhounds’ training process every year, as the dogs are made to pursue and
kill them in order to learn to run faster. Although the use of live lures is
illegal in most states, these laws are often difficult to enforce.
Also unsanitary is the diet of most racing dogs. They are routinely fed
what is known as 4-D meat, the meat of dead, dying or diseased animals. The
meat is sold cheap as it is deemed unfit for human consumption by the USDA. Predictably,
dogs that are fed this diet often get seriously ill.
At this point you may be wondering, why are the greyhounds treated so
badly if they’re a source of income for their owners? Surely an unhealthy dog
wouldn’t be a good racer. It wouldn’t be practical to mistreat a moneymaker,
right?
Well, caring for dogs costs money. Neglecting dogs is cheaper.
In most cases, the owner/investor of a racing greyhound is not the same
person who is responsible for the day-to-day care of the dog; that’s left up to
the trainer and their assistants. The owners only have to sit back and let the
dogs bring in the money.
Given that greyhound racing is first and foremost a business, the dogs
themselves are expendable, depending on how much money they generate. Every
year the industry breeds tens of thousands of greyhounds in an attempt to
produce “winners.” Although the average lifespan of a greyhound is 10-12 years,
racers are usually disposed of after 4 years in order to bring in a fresh
batch; sometimes younger dogs are disposed of due to injury or lack of racing
potential.
Once they’re not useful anymore, they’re either put up for adoption, sold
to research labs, returned to breeding facilities where they serve as breeding
stock, or sent to foreign racetracks in developing countries. Thousands of these greyhounds are euthanized
each year due to lack of available homes, including around 7,000 puppies at
breeding farms deemed ineligible for the racetrack, and another 11,000 retired
dogs. Given that money is the top priority, these greyhounds are often disposed
of with the least expensive methods, such as gunshot, bludgeoning, abandonment
and starvation.
Of course, the wellbeing of greyhounds does not matter to the state
racing commissions that oversee and regulate the industry. Their primary
function is to protect the state’s financial interest; therefore the industry
is not governed by the federal Animal Welfare Act or any other such laws.
Luckily the Human Society of the United States has been doing its part to
investigate industry abuses and initiate and support legislations to ban
greyhound racing. They also educate the general public of the inherit cruelty
of the industry, thereby gaining more momentum for the movement. Seven
states—Idaho, Maine, North Carolina, Nevada, Vermont, Virginia and
Washington—have banned greyhound racing, while 46 tracks operate in 15 other
states, 19 of which operate seasonally; the rest operate year-round. Two of
these states widely publicize the sport on local news outlets.
The only reason the sport became legal in many states was because
lawmakers thought they were a way to raise revenue. However, the industry has
taken a nosedive in the past twenty-odd years, and the generated revenue
currently amounts to less than one percent of a state’s annual income.
So not only is it inhumane, it’s also economically unsound. Tell me, why
is this still legal?
