Kids Helping Greyhounds

The Sport of Death

"Their bodies were scattered," the paper read.
Lean, long-legged greyhounds,
A bullet in each head.

72 greyhounds were found that way
In a garbage-strewn lemon field
On a still winter day.

The dogs were so young - most two or three
What crime did they do
That deserved this cruelty?

The judge was their trainer - the crime was, "Too slow."
The verdict was "Guilty,"
To the death field they'd go.

These trusting dogs were led there that day
By the trainer they'd worked for-
Their trust he'd betray.

Each greyhound was shot as their sentence that day.
For what humans call "Sport,"
What a price these dogs pay!

Life In The Fast Lane

Fancy Dan was a racer,
That's all he knew.
So he ran and he ran,
Till each race was through

The end of each race
Found him in his crate.
His muzzle removed
Just when he ate.

But losers aren't wanted,
And Dan didn't win.
So he went on a journey
In a truck with some men.

On a shadowed back road,
They unlatched Dan's crate.
A voice echoed, "Get out!"
Fancy Dan didn't wait.

Enchanted with freedom,
Dan ran through the night,
To excited to see
The truck vanish from sight.

As the morning sun rose
In the sky the next day,
Dan couldn't find water,
Or a cool place to stay.

Half dead from thirst,
Dan did what he knew.
He ran and he ran
Till the whole day was through.

Feet stinging with pain
From sharp rocks that day,
Dan limped to a farm -
Bullets sent him away.

Done licking his wound,
Dan ran on through the night.
He did what he knew,
though in pain, and with fright.

Afraid and confused,
he stopped running at last.
When out of the woods
came sounds from the past.

The sounds were of vans,
he took to the track,
so he ran to the sounds
that might take him back.

Dan did what he knew,
afraid in the night.
He ran toward the sounds,
but was blinded by light.

When the night turned to day,
And the bright day was new,
Fancy Dan ran no longer.
His race was now through.

Fancy Dan was a greyhound
Who ran his life through
Thrown away by his trainer
When he was just two.

Sixteen year old, Christina Hall wrote the following report for school. Thanks Christina for forwarding your report to help educate others on the horrors of Greyhound racing. Writing a report and sharing it with class mates is one way of getting the word out to others. Christinia goes to Caesar Rodney High School.

Greyhound racing is a sport. It is fun to feel the rush as your bet crosses the finish line in first place. Now for the reality of the subject. Greyhound racing is a problem. Each day a hundred or more dogs will be put to sleep because they lost the race, they got too old, or simply because the owner does not have room for them. Harsh, inhumane people that breed the dogs, train the dogs, and bet on the dogs cause this problem.

The issue could be resolved if everyone did his or her share to help and protect the greyhounds. It is a predicament that should be taken seriously because we are dealing with living beings. Greyhound racing must be recognized as an inhumane and unethical problem that needs to be solved.

The history behind the race is that a man, Owen Patrick Smith, who had seen a round of the sport coursing, invented it. His idea was that trained purebred greyhounds are set loose on a race track in hot pursuit of a mechanical lure that is equipped with what looks like a rabbit. The birth of greyhound racing was in the United States and from there it spread.

Today the sport is experienced in the British Isles, Europe, Australia, and other parts of the world (Greyhound Racing 453). In 1987, there were fifty greyhound-racing tracks in seventeen American states (Maisel 17). That was twelve years ago. Today that number has inflated to hundreds of popular tracks increasing the popularity of the sport.

The causes behind this serious dilemma are that people find it interesting that they are able to make money while watching something they deem entertaining. Gamblers and investors are the people that make up one side of the problem. The other side includes the owners and the trainers of the greyhounds. These people do not view the dogs as pets but instead they view them as a commodity (McClintock 62-67). They bring in the money that the owners live on. These people tend to live quite well with no guilty conscious. Robert Mendheim, a former greyhound owner made the comment in a past interview that “I am not what you’d call a pet lover...I am the master and they are the servant.” When it comes down to choosing between caring for the animal or caring about the money, it breaks hearts to hear that the money wins (McClintock 62-67). Special trainers train the greyhounds as racing dogs to run as fast they possibly can and to overcome any obstacles that interfere with their winning, such as another dog that would block their path. Some trainers use live bait to teach the dogs. It is a gruesome method that needs to end along with the entire process of greyhound racing. When the dogs are not on the track, they are usually found in their small, confined kennels with their roommates suffering from illnesses that develop under such unsanitary conditions. Such bad conditions caused six hundred to eight hundred greyhounds from Pensacola Greyhound Track in the northwest part of Florida to be disposed of each year by a local animal shelter ("mysterious illness" 1). In St. Petersburg, Florida, a mysterious illness has left over a hundred in pain. Many of these types of outbreaks of this illness have caused several tracks to close to impose quarantine. It is believed that the condition of the boarding is the culprit of this plague. The side effects the dogs are dealing with include blood vessels bursting in their skin, bleeding from their noses and mouths, and bloody stools. It is absolutely horrifying that the poor animals must live and sometimes die with these ailments (2). Any person with a caring heart should and would realize that there is an important problem that needs to be tended to immediately before it gets too far out of hand.

If the people of the world act quick enough and take action together, then we might be able to put out the fire of hatred that is impacting the lives of thousands of living, breathing animals. Nothing on the face of this earth should have to suffer as these animals do. The owners do not care because they believe the greyhounds have a high tolerance of pain because they are sometimes used in medical experiments.

There are many associations that attempt to protect the greyhounds. Helen Banks is a founder of one these groups called Second Chance For Greyhounds (McClintock 62-67). These organizations raise money and take on the responsibility of finding good, decent, caring homes for the greyhounds. Every year at least thirty thousand of the dogs are killed because many of the tracks have no adoption programs (62-67). REGAP, Greyhound Protection League, Greyhound Pets of America, and Second Chance For Greyhounds are just some of the more well known coalitions that the tracks could call upon to aid in the ridding of themselves of the dogs to good homes. GPA estimates that six thousand dogs are adopted through their program each year (62-67). If only a few of the tracks around the world would recruit an adoption service for their track, then many more greyhounds would live because someone at least gave an attempt at trying to be a ethical person with meaningful morals.

The main reason greyhounds suffer is because not everyone is doing hat they can to intervene with the cruel usage of the dogs (Maisel 17). The dogs endure so much in their short lives as racing dogs only to be killed and dumped somewhere. In a city called O'Fallon in Missouri, the employees at American UE were preparing to cut the grass when they came across a pile of forty-five dead greyhounds. There were thirty-six puppies and nine adult dogs. The adult dogs' ears had been crudely and cruelly cut off. This proves that even in death the greyhounds can not escape torture. As the police began to investigate the crime, two more piles of dead greyhounds were discovered. The police believe that the murderers thought, "they had found a good place to dump them." The police also conclude that some breeders that had been passing through brought the greyhounds into the area. The Greyhound Protection League was upset by the news they had heard from the media who was trying to get the word around. The GPL made the comment that the killing and the dumping of the dogs were not unusual. What was unusual was that the bodies had been found. Retired Greyhounds as Pets, also known as REGAP, was upset by the news too. They commented on the tragedy by giving their condolences and saying "The sad thing is we would have taken those animals and placed them." ("Mysterious illness" 3-6).

There are so many willing people to take care of the problem, but track owners do not want to waste their precious time and easily earned money to play a part in the saving of lives. This issue of killing greyhounds because they do not bring in money, does not win, or because they are too old has to end. It is an inhumane treatment of animals. People should realize the extent of the horror the greyhounds suffer through on a daily basis for at least five years of their lives, because at that age they are considered too old for racing. There are many groups around the world ready and willing to save the greyhounds for no profit; just so they have the satisfaction of doing something good with their lives. If the people of this world had any morals then we would not allow this to occur here. There is no place for gambling and killing; we already have enough problems.

Amber in Idaho sent us this poem. Thank you Amber for your support. the greyhounds appreciate you.