SIMULTANEOUS TRACK CLOSINGS PUT HUNDREDS OF GREYHOUNDS AT RISK

Oct 14, 2005 - Adoption Groups Nationwide Scrambling To Save Greyhounds

New England – Greyhound rescue groups face an exceptionally difficult task this fall with three New England dog tracks closing in the same timeframe. The rescue community is normally backed up for months when Connecticut’s Shoreline Star makes its seasonal shutdown in October and pours 400 dogs into the adoption system. The additional seasonal closing of Wonderland and Seabrook compound the problem three fold. This fall some 2,500 greyhounds will suddenly be displaced at one time, with at least 1,000 of those needing to find a safe-haven with a rescue organization.

While the remaining 1,500 greyhounds may be moved to dog tracks in other parts of the country, they will, in turn, displace some 1,500 other greyhounds that may well be facing death - escalating the situation to a national greyhound adoption crisis. Normally some of the displaced New England greyhounds would go to midwestern adoption groups. That door was closed a month ago when Wisconsin’s Geneva Lakes dog track announced that it would permanently close in November due to financial difficulties.

It’s already been a tough year for greyhound rescue groups. Plainfield Greyhound Park shut down in late spring, putting 600 pets into the system, many of which are still in foster care. That crisis filled up the Eastern half of the country and Canada with excess greyhounds. A recent emergency at an Arizona track saturated adoption groups in the West.

But those were just the high-profile crises: “It’s not just track closings and emergencies that keep us constantly overwhelmed,” said greyhound rescuer, Lenka Perron, co-founder of Michigan Retired Greyhounds As Pets. “We can’t even keep up with the routine grade-offs from the 40 dog tracks in this country and the two in Mexico. There are enough greyhounds in Florida alone to keep the entire rescue community inundated with greyhounds for years.”

Greyhound Protection League President, Susan Netboy, agrees, “Over-breeding and the existence of too many dog tracks are the primary factors contributing to both the over saturation of pet greyhounds and the greyhound death toll which we estimate at over 15,000 greyhounds a year. Greyhound breeding is a numbers game. Huge numbers of dogs with little or no racing potential are produced with the hope of getting that one dog that will be a moneymaker.”

The greyhound industry breeds an average of 34,000 greyhounds every year. Of those, 28,000 enter the racing system. The fate of the 28,000 greyhounds that exit the system is determined by the capacity of the nation’s greyhound rescue organizations.

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