Friday Hound Blogging

One of the responses the overlords have when confronted with yet another example of the systemic cruelty of their chosen profession is that the units...er...the dogs are highly trained athletes, each representing an investment of thousands of dollars and thus are treated to state of the art facilities and care.

Or maybe not.

A fire alarm wired to a guard shack on the Naples Florida greyhound track alerted twice, at 1:20 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. No one discovered the distressed dogs until just before 5 a.m., however, when the owners arrived at the kennel to prepare for a day of racing.

"We forget to tell the guard how to determine which kennel the alarms were connected to," track authorities said. "But it wouldn't have mattered anyway since he was passed out from drinking all night."

Upward of 60 dogs had been in the kennel when the fire broke out. The blaze is being attributed to a buildup of dust and dander in the air conditioning unit. In addition to the large amounts of dander 60 dogs in a room produce, the animals sleep in shredded paper, which creates dust when the greyhounds move around.

"Oh yeah, the kennels are dusty," said one track worker who asked that his name not be used. "I come out of there at night and my nose is so stuffed up you'd think I had a bad cold. The dogs sneeze a lot too I've noticed. Sounds like a TB ward sometimes with all the coughing, sneezing and hacking going on. And I'm talking about the human workers."

Track officials have said the operators of the 12 kennels on its campus are responsible for air conditioning maintenance. About 1,000 dogs are housed at the track. "It's not up to us," said a track official. "We just built the place, it's not like we have enough money to run it or anything."

Investigators looked at an air conditioner in a different kennel that had only been in place three weeks and found it already coated with the buildup. "Somebody ought to clean that," the track official said. "Oh, by the way, we'll get back to racing today. No runny no money, know what I mean?"

Yeah. We do. And here's someone else who had first hand knowledge of the stellar treatment greyhounds receive in the kennel. Meet RC Cummins:

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Cummins is very easygoing. He is a real gentleman. He is fine playing with the family's active Welsh Terrier. He is affectionate and will follow the foster mom from room to room. (Which is the majority of his exercise he gets in a day - he is a real couch potato) He is quiet and happy; his tail wags often. He is starting to play with toys. He enjoys walks and riding in the car. For more information about this dog, and other rescued racing greyhounds looking for homes, go here. If you don't know about the plight of racing greyhounds go here.