| Greyhound Protection League
home SEVENTY RACING GREYHOUNDS PERISH IN KENNEL FIREOct 17, 2005 - Greyhound Protection Group Labels Kennel a Death Trap and Calls For Shutdown Brooke County, West Virginia – Seventy racing greyhounds died a horrible death Sunday night when a fire broke out in a Brooke County greyhound kennel. The trailer that was used as a makeshift kennel to house race dogs was completely destroyed in the blaze. The property belongs to ZEZ Kennels, a nationally known greyhound racing operation, owned by Edward Zeroski. Zeroski races greyhounds at several dog tracks around the country. 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 a dog owner whose greyhounds died of heat stroke. “A trail of death follows these people,” said Greyhound Protection League (GPL) President, Susan Netboy. “They need to get out of the animal-use business.” GPL believes that after the 2000 tragedy, it should have been clear to county authorities that this was a shoddy operation that needed to be closely monitored. Netboy intends to follow the investigation closely and, if need be, file a complaint to ensure that appropriate action is taken. “The suffering endured by these poor animals simply can not be written off as an unfortunate tragedy and isolated incident,” said 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. “It’s unfortunate that protecting the lives of these dogs is such a low priority in the greyhound racing world,” concluded Netboy. The Greyhound Protection League is a national, non-profit greyhound welfare organization based in Penn Valley, California. |