Friday Hound Blogging

A while back we told you about Karyn Zoldan who had drawn the ire of the overlords for suggesting on her blog that the fact that dogs were disappearing, dying and just generally being knocked around might indicate that conditions at the track may be somewhat less than perfect.

Well, as you might imagine the overlords were justifiably upset by this careless troublemaker so they immediately organized public tours of the kennels, invited the press to the track to see the conditions in which their beloved greyhounds lived and encouraged groups like the Humane Society and the ASPCA to make unannounced inspections of the track, all in the service of making sure everyone knew how professionally and lovingly they were caring for the dogs.

Oh wait, that's not right. What they did was sue Zoldan.

So a judge comes along and apparently he isn't very impressed because he refused to grant a Temporary Restraining Order, or a Preliminary Injunction. Now, with school starting back up, the law student handling the case for the overlords has gone back to Bill Friendly's Law School and Truck Driving Academy so they've had to drop the suit entirely.

The track had filed the action against Zoldan for a number of inflammatory statements she initially posted on her blog, most notably the claim that "tens of thousands of dogs have died at Tucson Greyhound Park during its 60-year tradition of racing."In response, Zoldan changed that sentence to read "Only the officials at the track know how many dogs have died there because they are the ones who killed them."

Despite the changes, the site is still highly critical of the track and greyhound racing, in general, and John Munger, first year law student representing the overlords said the track still thinks there are inaccurate statements, but at this point track management is willing to let it go.“Still, we continue to have serious differences of opinion, but this is a democracy and everybody is entitled to their opinion. It's just that we'll sue you if your opinion is different from ours."

While he couldn’t say for sure why the track agreed to drop the suit, Chris Wencker, Zoldan’s attorney, said he thought the suit was making the track look bad.

Riiiight. Wouldn't want to tarnish that sterling reputation now would we Frankie?

Frankie is really friendly, outgoing, happy, and playful dog. He loves playing and running. He has a very gullible and happy spirit. He always seeks attention. He’s a big snuggler; he loves to lay his head on your lap to get pets. He knows how to entertain himself. He loved playing in the snow. He will play with a toy for an hour or more none stop. He will keep flipping it around. He loves toys. He gingerly retrieves all the toys from the corner where they're kept and now has them collected by his bed. He has a favorite stuffy (lips) and he grabs it first thing in the morning and wants to take it everywhere with him, even outside and foster mom has to tell him “no lips outside.” He likes to follow people around the house. One day there was a squeaky sound on the TV and he was searching for it – trying to find it. It almost seems like a hunting instinct. He’s super happy and super obedient. If you raise your voice at him, he will sit down; it’s not a frightened way, more of “okay I’m down.” He is a Second Chance at Life Dog from the Coldwater Prison Program. Frankie would do well in a working family home with well-mannered children, 15 and up. He needs to be the only dog in the home. 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.

And if you 'd like to know more about the good work the Second Chance at Life program is doing for the dogs, and the prisoners, go here.