Greyhound Lovers
 League

 

The purpose of this site is to dispel the destructive myths, rumors and falsehoods being spread by people and organizations who are fanatically opposed to greyhound racing. And to give you some idea of what the racing greyhound's life is really like.

Anti-racing Organizations

Anti-racing people and groups use two or three outdated news stories of what they consider evidence of abuse and neglect of racing greyhounds to attempt to paint the entire racing industry with a very wide brush. They wish to destroy the entire industry, based on their claims that these isolated incidents occur on a regular basis. And they fabricate claims of abuse where there is none. These stories are usually "reported" in the Greyhound Network News, the online equivalent  of the Greyhound Protection League.

One group calling itself Pennsylvania Citizens Against Greyhound Racing prominently displays pictures on their website of greyhounds in their kennels wearing muzzles, with the implication that this constitutes abuse. In actuality, some greyhounds will chew on the wire kennels - just as a puppy in your home would chew on furniture - damaging their teeth and injuring their lips and gums. The muzzles are for their protection. It is also claimed that these same dogs are kenneled twenty-one hours a day. While it's impossible to know if the dogs actually pictured are kenneled that long, it should be pointed out that most pet dogs in homes spend about that amount of time being inactive every day of their lives. And pet greyhounds are especially noted for their low activity levels most of the time. Hence the term: "40 mph couch potato."

Freddy, the Webmaster's Sofa Spud

Another organization of note today is Grey2KUSA, an outgrowth of the group that tried unsuccessfully to have greyhound racing banned in Massachusetts. Their board of directors looks like a convention of people from other similar groups all over the country but of particular note is the presence of a representative from the Humane Society of the United States - HSUS - an animal rights group. Keep in mind, there is a huge difference between animal welfare and animal rights.

Also bear in mind that HSUS has NO association with the Humane Society that runs shelters all around the US. In fact, HSUS doesn't contribute ONE PENNY to shelters, instead paying their officers salaries well into the six figure range. They use the name similarity intentionally, to help them raise contributions to pay those huge salaries and to pay for their fundraising, their single biggest expense ($16 million out of  total expenses of $55 million in 1999). And every dollar innocently contributed to HSUS by people thinking they're helping the shelters is, in essence, a dollar stolen from its intended beneficiaries: animals. Shortages of funds for the shelters means more unwanted pets put to sleep. For an interesting article about this radical lobbying group click here.

NONE of these anti-racing organizations - most of which are tied together -  does anything to help place retired greyhounds in homes. They put their effort into making noise and lobbying state lawmakers. Their goal is simply to outlaw dog racing and they don't care that it would bring about the deaths of at least 50-75,000 dogs. These are the same people who love to repeat the stories of the "mass graves" of greyhounds no longer wanted by their owners, yet they would add thousands more, just to fulfill their own particular agenda. A leader of HSUS told a group of greyhound people that they don't want greyhound welfare to improve because that would take the wind out of their sails (paraphrased). In other words, they want the public to be stirred up so they can take advantage of the controversy. And raise more funds for themselves.

Anti-racing Adoption Groups

One 'adoption group,' Greyhound Companions of New Mexico, displays a picture of a terribly emaciated greyhound on a page where they decry the "abuse and neglect" perpetrated by trainers and hint at atrocities performed by the racing industry. But they fail to mention on that page that the dog, Fever, was rescued from an adoptive home, after one and a half years living with a person who was approved for adoption by another group. Oh, sure, they tell her real story--IF you go to ANOTHER page. Why did they feel the need to feature not one, not two, but THREE photos of Fever on a page that has absolutely no mention of her story? Do they want us to assume the pictures relate to what they say about racing? You be the judge.

(A photo of Fever used to be on this page but the president of GCNM demanded that it be removed, threatening legal action if it wasn't, even though by posting it to their web site, they placed in the public domain. That would have meant a considerable amount of time and energy consumed that could have gone to help retired greyhounds and that made no sense to me so I removed it. If you really want to see it go to http://www.gcnm.org and choose "Public Awareness.")

It is absolutely amazing the lengths some anti-racing groups - including adoption groups - will go to in their efforts to convince people how cruel racing is. There is one adoption group in Massachusetts and one in Ohio that have been known to starve the dogs they get from the tracks so they can show how 'underfed' racing dogs are (OR they simply starve the dogs and conveniently blame it on racing). The MA group,  supposedly concerned with greyhound welfare, took one dog from Seabrook Greyhound Park, for example, and placed the dog after one month - at SEVENTEEN POUNDS under his racing weight. What kind of welfare is THAT? And they falsified the papers to show the poor pup had come from the track - that thin - only one day prior to his new owner taking him. Of course these groups and many others tell their adopters not to contact the racing owners or trainers and often don't give them any information on the dogs' backgrounds because they wouldn't want anyone discovering the truth.

The Truth

The TRUTH is there are literally thousands of breeders, trainers and racing dog owners in the US alone who treat their dogs with love and respect, just as do those of us who have chosen these dogs to be our pets after their careers have ended. An unhealthy, underfed or unhappy dog will NOT win races in the incredibly competitive sport of greyhound racing. So a trainer who doesn't treat his or her dogs well doesn't stay in business long. And there are many greyhound adoption groups that recognize this truth and work well WITH the racing community for the benefit of the dogs, rather than against them, at the EXPENSE of the dogs.


Please read on....

The Case Against Banning Greyhound Racing
by Cynthia Branigan

The Life of A Racing Greyhound

The Radicals: What are they saying?

Fact or Fiction: Common Myths

Adopting a Retired Racer

Contact the Webmaster


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