Friday Hound Blogging

RED ALERT!! READ ALERT!! RED ALERT!! They've found us out fellow Communist Nazi Muslim free enterprise haters. Our cover has been blown!


"I strongly advise that horse racing’s leadership not take animal rights groups lightly," said outgoing AGTOA president Karen Keelan. Additionally, she called for unity between pari-mutuel racing groups to address the animal rights issues in racing. "The animal exploitation industry is in serious danger," Keelan said. "It's time for those of us with a common interest in sucking the life out of innocent creatures for profit to band together."

Rats. For years we were able to operate under the radar doing things like protesting at tracks, writing legislators, having exposes on TV, articles in newspapers and magazines and running public education activities all over the nation. Obviously we were naive in thinking the overlords wouldn't  notice.

 Well, the jig is up. The overlords are on to us. It's only a matter of time before they unleash the full weight of their intellectual acumen and strategic expertise against us and who can stand up to that?

The U.S. Association of Racing Commissioners has found that wagering on U.S. greyhound races declined from $3.5 billion in 1991 to $1.1 billion in 2007 -- a 68 percent drop, with more than half of the tracks existing in the late 1980s and early 1990s having closed.

Oh. Well yeah, there is that. Still, now that our nefarious deeds have been exposed to the light of day, it's only a matter of time before greyhound racing is once again the popular family entertainment it once was. 

The industry is in such rapid decline that a growing number of dog track owners are finding common ground with animal rights groups hoping to put live dog racing out of its misery.

 Now, that might sound encouraging, but don't get your hopes up. Every industry has a few disgruntled employees, a few square pegs in round holes. Besides, it's not up to a few misfit track owners. Since greyhound racing is a regulated industry it comes under the far seeing, deeply contemplative gaze of the local governmental establishment who will do nothing to kill the goose laying the golden egg of revenues.

If the popularity of greyhound racing is dwindling in Iowa, legislators need to rethink a state law that artificially keeps the dog breeding industry alive here, key state senators said. "We have to ask whether it's still a good business practice in the state of Iowa," Senator Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque said.

 "Artificially" keeping the dog breeding industry alive? That's a little harsh Senator Jochum, don't you think? These people contribute. Well, the dogs contribute, the people leech off of them, but still, it is an industry and it is part of the state's past, and also its future, no? We mean, who's going to replace them if they do go away?

Harrah’s calls greyhound racing a giant waste of money and resources — including real estate that could be used for more profitable enterprises. “It’s like a horse and buggy manufacturer getting a subsidy from an auto manufacturer,” Harrah’s spokesman Gary Thompson says. “We’re subsidizing a dying business.”

Hmmm...well he might have a point there. Greyhound racing has always been a dying business, only up until recently it was just the dogs who did the dying, right Jack?

Jack is very sweet and curious about everything. He enjoys pets but doesn’t actively seek them out. He is very easygoing and mellow. He will randomly blow a big puff of air through is mouth. Jack would do well in a working family home with well-mannered children, 8 and up. He is good with other dogs and he would probably be okay as an only dog. 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.