Friday Hound Blogging

Whoa. Did you see where our week went? It was around here a minute ago, and now we can't find it anywhere. Jeez. We could have sworn we left Wednesday on the coffee table, but it's not there now. Dang, a whole week of retiring, vaginaing, sequestering and death threatening has gone by and nary a peep out of us.

Who says the level of civility hasn't improved?

Anyway, here we are at another Friday and dare we say it as denizens of the Water Winter Wonderland, another step closer to spring and the glorious time of rebirth, warm days and soft breezes moving through the slowly greening trees, now filled with the pleasant chirp and tweet of newly returned birds. Ah, a wonderous time of year.

Well, unless you're an overlord.

The greyhound racing business is on its last legs. Wagers are down at the tracks because easier forms of betting offer more immediate gratification. The industry also is plagued by accusations of cruelty. The Grey2K USA group, which opposes dog racing, reported that in 2011, a total of 855 greyhound injuries were reported to the West Virginia Racing Commission, leading to the deaths of 40 dogs. In 38 states, commercial dog racing is illegal. Only seven states even have dog racing these days. Maybe it is time for West Virginia to make that six.

Now see, poor attitudes like that are going to result in a whole bunch of  undereducated, overfed, borderline sociopaths with commitment issues entering the workforce. Well, more accurately hanging around just outside the workforce heckling passersby and just generally bringing down property values in the neighborhood.

This state's two dog tracks would have shut down 20 years ago were it not for the casino industry, which promised to prop up dog racing.

Oh that's just not fair right there. Do you seriously mean to tell us that an industry that has seen 26 tracks close across the nation since 2001, that operated at a $6.5 million loss last year,  that has been on a down hill slide for 19 straight years, that everybody and his brother are trying to get rid of needs to be "propped up?" Is that what you're trying to tell us?

OK, we can see that.

Racing was a fig leaf to mask the real goal - legalizing full-blown casino gambling, which the state has since done. The law should be changed, not necessarily to ban dog racing outright, but to allow the casinos to drop the fig leaf.

 Umm...we hope you're being metaphorical there Mr. Writer sir, because the last thing we need to see is a bunch of naked overlords, right Better?

Demand Better is a very happy and curious boy. He is on the go quite a bit as he has so much to investigate and learn about living in a home for the first time. Better is very friendly and loves to be around people. He loves to play with toys. He is housebroken. Better loves to follow his foster mom and human foster sister around the house. He gets along with cats and large dogs but hasn't had a chance to meet any small dogs yet. 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.