Friday Hound Blogging

The overlords are fond of telling us that even though greyhound racing is a business, because of its unique nature, they continually put the needs of the units...er...the dogs above those of profit. Well, we all know how that's working out, but it isn't often we get to see how the actual business end of the industry works. Turns out it works about as well as you'd expect for a system that relies on the exploitation of innocent animals and the...um...er...lack of sophistication of the patrons.

First up: the tracks. Seems they aren't exactly profit centers.

The License Commission is delaying a vote on revoking Wonderland Greyhound Park's liquor and other licenses as long as track management honors its plan to pay off overdue taxes.
Wonderland President Richard Dalton said the plan provides for the track to initially pay $175,000 toward an $800,000 overdue property tax and water charge bill and then pay $5,000 a month to erase the debt. "We hope to improve on that," Dalton said Friday. "This Friday we're starting our combination Flea Market and Swap Fair. Come on out and dicker. No reasonable offer refused because we don't want to go to jail."

What, no bake sale? Maybe things are better for the individual entrepreneurs.

The greyhound breeding business of a retired Internal Revenue Service auditor does not qualify for business deductions, according to a US tax court. Ralph Whitecavage, an IRS auditor in Arizona for 21 years, was told by judge Michael Thornton that he was liable for thousands in dollars of understated tax. "I always thought IRS Agents didn't have to pay taxes," Whitecavage said. "It's like a perk, you know?"

The judge also criticised Whitecavage's treatment of the dogs, of whom he 'lost' 20 greyhounds because of bad training methods by the trainers in the racing kennels. "I thought you could deduct stock loss," Whitecavage told reporters.

Yeah. Isn't that like depreciation due to death or something? Well, at least the customers are bound to win occasionally.

A circuit judge has ordered Macon County Greyhound Park, which operates the VictoryLand dog track in Shorter, to pay $10 million to a woman who sued the park in May 2006 in a dispute over an electronic bingo game jackpot. "Do you know how many two dollar bets that is?" said Milton McGregor, majority owner of the greyhound park. "We'll be paying that off until the second coming."

According to court documents, Knowles, who was an employee at VictoryLand, was playing an electronic bingo game there on May 2, 2006. She said she hit a jackpot on the machine worth $41.8 million. Knowles said two greyhound park employees approached her and told her the jackpot was "not a valid win." They said the machine had malfunctioned. "And by 'malfunctioned' they mean it paid out," Knowles told reporters after the hearing.

Looks like bingo machines aren't the only thing that's malfunctioning, huh moonlight?

Although Moonlight is a senior, she acts like she’s 4. She wants to cuddle with you; she puts her front paws on you. She’s very friendly and outgoing. She’s priceless and super sweet. Her one ear flips up; she’s so cute. Moonlight would do fine with a working family with well-mannered children and she would be fine as a second dog or as the only dog. She was in a home for seven years with another greyhound. 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.