You'd better sit down for this.
Of course you are aware of the pride the overlords take in the high ethical and logical standards they set for themselves when defending their...ah...let's go with sport from those who through no fault of their own mind you, have come to the mistaken conclusion that greyhound racing is a barbarous vestige of a less enlightened time before people had...um...souls we think, but we may not be remembering correctly.
Anyway, it has become a dictum in overlord land that all arguments brought against them were to be countered with logic, rationality and a firm sense of intellectual rigor.
Now it turns out that fine tradition, that bulwark of ethical strength, those dazzling rhetorical heights have been based on a foundation of lies.
An Ohio-based researcher is accusing greyhound racing supporters in Massachusetts of misrepresenting her human sports-injuries study to counter the argument that dog racing is dangerous to the animals.
We are shocked we tell you, shocked.
A graphic published on the Web site of the Massachusetts Animal Interest Coalition, the group opposing ballot Question 3 to abolish dog racing, lists injury rates for sports like “boys football” and “girls volleyball” as a percent — a figure out of every hundred. But her study, according to co-author Dawn Comstock, measured the rates per one thousand. “It’s quite a bit of a misrepresentation,” said Comstock, a researcher for the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
There's that pesky math again.
The coalition’s campaign manager, Glenn Totten, said he was unaware of the mistake but stuck by the contention that greyhound racing is "safer than high school sports regardless of what some pencil necked researcher found using all that fancy statistics and science and stuff."
The greyhound injury rate has been a cornerstone of the anti-racing campaign, which continually points to state records reporting more than 800 injuries at tracks in Raynham and Revere since 2002. Their opponents seeking to keep dog racing alive have sought to downplay those numbers, saying that when viewed in the context of the fact that they occurred over thousands of races, the injury rate is less than 1 percent. "Look they're just going to be killed when they can't win anymore anyway," Totten said. "What's the big deal if a few of them get hurt first?"
Comstock, who is also a professor at Ohio State University, said she did not agree with the pro-racing group’s decision to group greyhound injury rates with high- and medium-contact sports, such as football, wrestling and basketball. "Kids who play sports do so voluntarily, and they have protective equipment and adult supervision. I don't see any of that at a race track. Especially the adult supervision part. Is anybody sober at those things?"
“It would be more appropriate to compare greyhound racing to collegiate track and field,” Comstock said. "Well, except for the fact that we don't kill somebody for losing the 100 yard dash."
Totten, the pro-racing group’s campaign manager, conceded the comparison was “asymmetrical” but maintained the greyhound injury was too low to merit the criticism it has received.
“The fact is that our opponents are saying we’re running a canine demolition derby,” he said.
You mean like this?
Hey Batman, how would you like folks to vote on Question 3?
Batman is a beautiful dog with sleek a sleek black coat, with a grey face and white chest patch. He is a bit shy at first, but when he gets to know you is “the love of your life,” his foster mom says. Batman loves to have his neck scratched all over and will crane it from side to side while thumping his leg with delight. He is very quiet and calm in the house, and will sometimes offer to shake a paw. He is also a “collector” and will gather all of the dog toys and old chew bones in the house and put them around and under his bed. Batman would do well in a working family or single home environment, with or without other pets. He is good with well-mannered children. 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.
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3 comments:
I am sick to death with morons pushing for "thug-like" sports like football and hockey and demanding animals to follow the "course".
I was never a "hockey mom" nor a football mom for good reason...life threatening injuries and the taunts of "team-like" bullies make violence the ultimate game and I'll be damned if one more idiot proclaiming how great and "all American" greyhound racing must be....should be pushed against all odds of this breed ever coming out "intact".
Cage your children; electrocute them when they disobey and for heaven's sake, give them little in return.
Someone should look into the futures of this family's breeding. I deem it "bad temperament" and highly unbalanced, not to mention, an inbred speciman not fit to "declare."
Well.well well...the "Glenns
are calling and of course, it's in the form of blatant b.s.
Why some people in America have this unbridled love of violence is way beyond me, and obviously all those other states barring cock-fights, pit-bull fights, etc. Rodeos and all those cheap livestock kidddie rides where you nail them and jail them and tail them, good God. No wonder Americans, oversea, are not looking very bright....but do their children follow without questioning?
Surely we have advanced further than the George Carney's and the John Parkers and the millions of "Glenns" who are completely outsmarted and outvoted just by the very fact of fast diminishing racetracks. The message, dear mentally slow ones, is that no-one likes it, wants to pay for it and damn well do not want to go! So, whatever is happening with the "necessary employment" argument and the fun-loving races" part, looks like that just isn't playing to the crowds. The only ones hoping to still believe it are those quite simply connected, by bucks, by name or for politics and as we have seen with all the Stevens from Alaska, they ,too ,shall swiftly go.
Batman, unmask them all...and fly them to the moon.
Who are you going to believe? An Ohio Prof at University or some guy mixed with "gambling"?
Kids may be kids, but dogs are certainly dogs, and no matter what way you want to "toss it", kids are never caged, thrown rotten meat, or shot when they don't get A's.
Enough of this blather. Vote to end all this dog-racing cruelty.
P.S. It has to do with education.
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