DAYTONA KENNEL OWNER LOSES SEVENTY-THREE FLORIDA RACE DOGS IN WEST VIRGINIA FIRE

Oct 19, 2005 - Daytona Beach – Seventy-three racing greyhounds from Florida died a horrible death Sunday night when a fire broke out in a West Virginia kennel owned by Daytona Beach kennel operator, Ed Zeroski. According to news reports, no one was on the property when the fire started on Sunday evening. By the time the fire was reported the dogs were already dead and the trailer that was used as a makeshift kennel was entirely engulfed in flames.

The property belongs to ZEZ Kennels, a nationally known greyhound racing operation, owned by Edward Zeroski. Zeroski holds a contract to race greyhounds at several dog tracks around the country, including several in Florida: Daytona Beach Kennel Club, Sanford Orlando Kennel Club, Derby Lane and Tampa Greyhound Track.

Information obtained by the Greyhound Protection League (GPL) indicates that the dead greyhounds had recently raced in Palm Beach and Daytona. “Apparently they were all ‘pets’ that had to be removed from the track property,” said GPL President, Susan Netboy. “I just don’t understand why these dogs weren’t allowed into the greyhound adoption programs there. The dogs made money for the Palm Beach and Daytona Kennel Clubs and then they ‘got the boot’ when they were no longer useful.”

In August of 2000 this same trailer was the site of another grizzly scene in which 60 greyhounds died when the air conditioning unit malfunctioned. The incident resulted in multi-million dollar lawsuit against Zeroski and the Wheeling Downs racetrack by an owner who lost 16 dogs to heat stroke.

“It’s unfortunate that protecting the lives of these dogs is such a low priority in the greyhound racing world,” concluded Netboy.

This is the third incident this year alone in which racing greyhounds have died in fires that were the result of unsafe conditions:

Seventeen greyhounds died of smoke inhalation in June when a fire broke out at the Naples-Ft. Meyers dog track.
In September ten young greyhounds died in a hauling vehicle fire in the Orlando, Florida area.

The Greyhound Protection League is a national, non-profit greyhound welfare organization based in Penn Valley, California.

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