| Greyhound Protection League
home FATAL ACCIDENT ON IOWA’S I-80 KILLS DRIVER AND RACE DOGS HEADED FOR DAIRYLAND GREYHOUND PARKJan 12, 2007 - Greyhound Advocates Call for Regulation of Dog Hauling Vehicles Davenport, Iowa – A pickup truck towing a greyhound-hauling trailer with 30 greyhounds on-board veered off the road in the early morning hours near Davenport, Iowa, killing the 62 year-old driver and 3 racing greyhounds that were struck by on-coming traffic when the trailer turn over and the doors popped open allowing the dogs to run onto the highway. Four other greyhounds that escaped are running at large and are at grave risk. The hauler was transporting racing greyhounds from Oklahoma breeding farms to Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha, Wisconsin. According to the Quad-City Times, the driver, Francis Evans, of Rayland, Ohio, was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other passengers escaped unharmed. “Dog hauling is the life-blood of the greyhound racing industry,” said Susan Netboy, President of the Greyhound Protection League (GPL). “And it is a virtually unregulated business, in spite of the fact that it poses one of the most lethal threats to the welfare of racing greyhounds.” Netboy says that greyhound hauling rigs are constantly on the road throughout the country, moving greyhounds from breeding farms to tracks and from track to track and back to the farm. Haulers are often on the road for days without rest. “There is no inspection or oversight of either the driver or the road-worthiness of the rig by state or federal regulators,” says Netboy. “Dog hauling is strictly a free enterprise type of business that has been responsible for the death of far too many greyhounds.” Some of the more notable public incidents in recent years include: • 8 greyhounds dead from heat exhaustion in El Paso, Texas - 2005 Netboy asserts that greyhound deaths in hauling rigs are a common occurrence, but the incidents go unreported unless there is a human fatality or public spectacle. The group intends to initiate legislation on both the state and federal level to protect greyhounds from the risks inherent in the greyhound hauling business. “The death of greyhound race dogs can no longer be written off as the ‘cost-of-doing business,’” says Netboy. |