Friday Hound Blogging

Whoa! Oh, hi there. Caught us a little off guard. Getting ready for the big game and all. Say, you wouldn't happen to have any ice would you? Our freezer's full of Stoli. No? OK, well here's a few bucks would you mind running down to the...oh. You're here for Friday Hound Blogging. Well, no problem, no problem, we'll just take a peek at the toobz and see what the overlords have been up to. You sure you don't have any ice?

Now...um...let's see...overlords expect people with souls to clean up their mess...ah..old news...industry being killed by over regulation...same-o same-o...upstanding character of overlords besmirched in politically motivated smear campaign...slings and arrows, slings and arrows. Wait a minute, what's this?

There may not be greyhound racing in Massachusetts anymore, but there are still a lot of greyhounds.

Guess what? That's going to happen when you...you know...stop killing them and stuff.

In Massachusetts, a statewide ballot question in 2008 passed by a large margin and ended dog racing here forever. Locally, tracks like Wonderland were pretty much put out of business. Others, like the Taunton track, were also put out of business.

"Others?" Er...Mr. Reporter sir? There are no "others." And, when the state outlawed dog racing what did you expect would happen to dog racing tracks? See, the whole idea of making something illegal is to stop people from doing it. No need to thank us for clearing that up for you. We're glad we could help.

So why is it that the dogs are now being ignored by so many?

Yeah, OK we don't mean to be rude or anything, but when you have to have illegal explained to you we're just going to have to ask how many is "so many" and who, exactly are these people ignoring greyhounds. Last time we checked people like Christine Dorchak hadn't moved to Belize or anything.

While that ballot question ended the long-standing dog racing industry in the state a few years ago, racing dogs are still coming back to Massachusetts from out-of-state in huge quantities and adoption agencies here are trying to figure out what to do with them.

 Hmm...well certainly "some people" think "huge quantities" are flooding into Massachusetts, but then, some people think the earth is flat so, Mr. Reporter sir, no offense but, do you, like, actually talk to people before you write your stories or is it just, you know, voices in your head and whatnot?

It’s an example of just how a ballot question – so emotionally driven – can have such unforeseen consequences. It brings up the larger question as to whether or not such sweeping changes to government should be determined by a simple vote of the people.

 Well, if by "unforeseen consequences" you mean greyhounds get to live longer, you know that wasn't all that "unforeseen." In fact it was sort of the point. And as for "simple vote of the people" that's that there whatderyacallit? Democracy? You know, Declaration of Independence? Baseball? Apple pie? Is any of this getting through?

Basically, after racing ended here, many trainers and kennel owners took their dogs to Florida. There are 13 tracks in Florida still in existence and dogs from Wonderland simply made the trip south. They weren’t set free to frolic in the fields and play all day long. They just went somewhere else to race.

 Right. You do understand that the law just referred to racing in Massachusetts don't you? There is still exploitation racing going on in other states.

Now, however, those dogs are retiring and they’re coming back to Massachusetts in droves. “We used to get four or five dogs and now often they want to bring a lot of dogs all at once,” said Louise Coleman – director of Greyhound Friends. “They don’t want to bring a few of these dogs all the way up here from Florida.”

True dat. This is called cleaning up after the overlords. See "people with souls" above.

Another worry is if greyhound racing disintegrates in other places. Just who will take care of all of those dogs? It’s a worry in the adoption industry that they call the potential “Greyhound Tsunami.”

Surely you are overly concerned Ms. Coleman. The overlords have explained to us, using irrefutable geometric logic that the dogs they so lovingly sucked their trailer payments off of all those years  will not be abandoned. Why, not a day goes by that some overlord somewhere doesn't explain how much the the industry cares for these "athletes." They're part of the family.

OK, writing that gave us a headache.

Finally, there’s also the worry about the overall survival of the greyhound breed. Without greyhound racing, greyhound trainers, and upstanding kennels, adoption agency directors wonder who would actually breed greyhounds.

Yipes, we hadn't thought of that. Why, greyhounds could suffer the same fate as horses did when people stopped breeding them after cars were invented. Jeez Ozzie, who'd a thought you were better off racing for a couple of years then being killed, huh?

Ozzie is very confident, curious and silly. His family says he is a big goof ball. He likes affection, but does not always seek it out. He will stay by you when you pet him. He looks at everything like he is seeing it for the first time. He is always investigating things. In the beginning, he kept running up to the full length mirror to see the “other dog”. He likes to stick his nose in things to “see” what it is – like your glass. Ozzie would do well in a working family home with well-mannered children, 5 and up. He is good with other dogs and would probably be fine 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.