Friday Hound Blogging

Hey that was fun last week wasn't it? We hadn't heard from the G man in quite a while. Nice to know he's still as...um...how to say this politely...let's just say it's nice to know the space between his ears is as extramundane as it always has been. There are some things in this life that you can count on. Birds gonna fly, fish gonna swim, Rory gonna...well, you get our point.

So anyway, this week let's traipse on over to a popular overlord blog and see what the haps are. The blog is called Grey2K Lies and not because the overlords are obsessed with Grey2K or anything; not because Grey2K scares the pants off of them because they're one of the most effective groups arguing that the overlords should join the labor pool; not because they're constantly reminding the public that  wholesale commodification, resulting in senseless injury and death for innocent living creatures for (no) profit is inhumane, intolerable in an enlightened society and economically unsustainable. Also, their second choice for a title: We're Going To Write A Bunch Of Stuff That Confirms Our Delusions And Makes Us Feel Comfortable Until Reality Breaks Down The Last Of This Imaginary Facade We've Created And Then We'll Act All Surprised And Blame It On Someone Else seemed a bit long.

So what's the topic du jour?

"Rescue"... What is it?

It's one little word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  It is a word that has been used to inflect hurt upon people; it is a word that has been used to describe the process of rehoming animals.  It is a word that generates images of pathetic, abused animals, which then generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for some group such as HSUS.  It is a word that has been properly used to describe animals taken out of horrific, shocking conditions.  One little word....  so many meanings.

Hmm...OK, animals taken out of horrific, shocking conditions we get, but inflict hurt, generate dollars...not definitions we noticed in our Websters. We sense another agenda at play. Do go on overlord blogger.

In greyhounds, the word "rescue" was introduced to the lexicon to wound people, to hurt and destroy them, to dehumanize them, to place the greyhound racing community in as bad of a light as possible.

Yeah, uh, that's an interesting interpretation and all, but you kind of did that to yourselves there Mr. or Ms. overlord blogger.  Or maybe it's more accurate to say people like this, or this, or this, or this, or this, or events like this or this did it for you, because it wasn't until people with souls began to learn how you used the units and what happened to them when you were done with them that it was determined they needed to be rescued, but we understand that representing the real world is not the goal here, so please continue.

The people who use the word to harm and injure, and to sustain a negative stereotype, are like those who continually refer to our President using his middle name with emphasis purely to create the same negative effect. The majority of people are tragically misinformed about greyhounds. In today's racing/adoption model, there is no coercion. People willingly give their greyhounds to adoption groups who willingly see to their rehoming.

Yeah, except no: "I'll never let one of my dogs be adopted be an anti-racing group..."And as long as we're engaging in a little etymology here, about that word rehoming. How can you be rehomed when you ain't had no home to begin with? See, Mr. Webster defines home as "the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household." Now, since you dump slow greyhounds faster than Scott Walker dumps positions, and since greyhounds are in no way members of your family (unless you abandon your relatives when they're no longer of any use to you) there is no home for them to leave in the first place, hence rehoming is not the word you are looking for. Inventory reduction fits the bill better, don't you think? Glad we could help.

Yet, when people use the term "rescue" it gives the impression that the racing industry had has been bad to them. However, there is a BIG difference between a dog that came off of a track to a dog wandering the streets.... No comparison at all.

Well, that's true. Dogs wandering the street are an unfortunate consequence of irresponsible owners while greyhounds are prisoners in a system of institutionalized cruelty bred only for their market value and deserted when they can no longer perform. So what's your point?

The "rescue" terminology, as it applies to racing greyhounds, is the bludgeon of the demagogue. It is used with malicious intent. It is a slur, a slur applied with a very broad brush, on those who do the right thing to the best of their ability. It is a slap in the face to the greatest majority of decent, hard-working, and dedicated folks who go without so their dogs are given every chance at full life before, during and after racing.

Sure, if they don't get killed on the track, or culled before they even get there, but we get it, overlords have varying degrees of commitment to their dogs, but does that really matter when all overlords, regardless of their personal connection to their charges see them as a means to an end rather than  living, breathing sentient creatures who didn't ask to be put in this situation and simply deserve the right to live out their lives unmolested by your pecuniary desires?

For years now, there is a group of money hungry lobbyists in the US that are trying to do away with dog racing. That group is Grey2K.

Here we go...

They imply that the racing folks don't care and that they are only in it to "make a buck off the backs of the dogs".  They are propagandists and use their misinformation to pull on the heart strings of potential new income sources, enabling a kind of weird higher purpose for those donating.

You know, there's an easy way to disabuse people of the notion you're only in it for the money, pick one of the 39 states that has outlawed betting on greyhounds and open a track there, just for the fun and excitement of the sport don't you know, because that's what it's really all  about right?

Personally, I get pretty darn pissed off about the whole thing.  All those wasted dollars would be better served going to actual adoption groups and/or local shelters.

Oh we're with you there Mr. or Ms. overlord. We're pretty pissed off too because all those wasted dollars going to subsidize your dead industry could be put to better use as well. What's your opinion Tilly?

Tilly can live with cats and small dogs, but we don't yet know if she can be 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 and here.