First a little back story. There was this greyhound injury and death facility in London called Walthamstow. Like most places where living creatures like greyhounds are treated as commodities and daily placed in danger of their lives, it had been losing money for years. In the face of a tsunami of red ink the owners promised in December of 2007 not to sell it but to bring it back stronger than ever.(Editor's note: That should have been a clue as to what was going to happen next) So they closed it in 2008 and shortly after it was bought by housing association London and Quadrant (L&Q) who said, hey, let's build some houses on the land. You know, do something worthwhile with it.
Well, as you might imagine this upset the overlords no end as it was obvious to them turning the land into homes and shops would deny everyone years of watching the slow degradation of the area, the loss of jobs and rise in crime, not to mention the spectacle of dead greyhounds being carted off day after day after day.
So they appealed to the Mayor of London. "Mayor," they said. "How can you let this happen? You have a chance here to prop up a dying industry, to perpetuate heartless cruelty and to keep us from having to work for a living, and instead you want to provide housing for people? Where are your priorities?"
The mayor, though moved by their eloquence and cognizant of their lack of any marketable skill with which to get a job, nevertheless responded, "Nah. I think I'll go with helping people rather than killing greyhounds, but thanks for your input and here are some nice brochures on Walmart Greeter School. If you can tell me how old you are without counting on your fingers I might be able to get you a scholarship."
And you would think that would be the end of it, but if you did, you don't know how desperate the overlords were to stay out of the job market, and how little they cared how many greyhounds had to die to make it so. They needed a hero. Someone to take up their cause; someone who could feel their pain. Someone not too bright.
Fast forward to the present and meet just such a person:
Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford delivered a stinging rebuke to Boris Johnson’s Conservative leadership aspirations after the London Mayor approved a scheme to turn the Walthamstow dog track in east London into flats.A furious Duncan Smith asked “What’s the point of Boris?” and accused the Mayor of failing to show leadership following the decision to demolish the famous stadium. "That track could have sat there for years, sucking the life out of the neighborhood," Smith told reporters. "Instead our Mayor decides he'd rather provide low cost homes, shops, playgrounds and who knows what other social and economic benefits to the residents of London. Again I say, what’s the point of Boris?”
Mr Duncan Smith, the MP for Chingford, said he was “absolutely furious” at the decision made by his Tory “friend”. He told BBC London 94.9: “This is a bad decision and I have constituents of mine saying ‘What’s the point of Boris?’ See, we're saying what's the point of Boris rather than what's the point of his decision because even we aren't stupid enough to miss the fact that this is really going to help a lot of people.”
In an extraordinary attack aimed at a fellow senior Conservative, the Cabinet minister went on to question Mr Johnson’s leadership pretensions. Mr Duncan Smith said: “I’ve been secretary of state for a while. You take tough decisions. OK, the track has been closed for four years and was dying years before that, so this wasn't such a tough decision, but Boris could have made it tough if only he'd picked stupid over right.”
Rick Holloway, of the Save Our Stow campaign, questioned L&Q’s pledge to create 250 new jobs and build affordable homes. “The world’s number one dog racing track until it went bankrupt and which used to have 5,000 people going to it every week until no one came to it is now going to be a fortress housing estate,” he said. "People living here! Shopping, working, raising families! What about the losers who used to come and bet on the dogs? Who's watching out for them?"
Hmmm...he might have a point. Looks like Mayor Boris just lost the idiot vote, huh Caroline?
Katjam Caroline is a very sweet and friendly girl. She loves everyone she meets. She loves to go for walks and play in the yard. She is very good on the leash. She is learning how to do stairs. She has not learned how to play with toys yet but she loves chewing on her rawhides. She does good in her crate; however, she does sometimes bark when her foster parents first come home so they leave her in the crate until she quiets down, which does not take long. She has had no accidents in the house or her crate. She lets her foster parents know when she has to go out. She is not cat or small dog safe. She has had some experience with children and has done well. She would be fine in a home with older well-behaved children. She gets along great with men and women. 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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