Hounds Home For The Holiday

Every once in a while it occurs to us here in the marbled halls of IM Central that we have done things more than once, and no, the staccato nature of our memory is not due to the long term partnership we have with our blogging partner, Mr. Stolichnaya, or maybe we should refer to him as Dr. Stolichnaya because he is just the prescription for getting along in a country where abstract legal entities are free to worship as they see fit, (we're guessing worshiping Mammon fits them nicely) but living, breathing actual humans who happen not to have a y chromosome are more regulated than guns in Georgia. See what we did there? We call him Dr. Stolichnaya because he prescribes. Play on words. We crack us up.

Where were we? Oh yeah, traditions. OK, since anything we consciously do more than once around here we consider a tradition, and since we plan to spend the actual holiday cowering in the bathroom with three very nervous skinny dogs while our neighbors reenact the barrage of Fort McHenry, we thought this would be a good time to bring back Hounds Home for the Holiday, or as we like to call it, H³.

And this is a very good day to do an H³ too, because we just found out overlords have feelings! Now we always knew they were capable of exhibiting previously unrecorded levels of greed and callousness, but we never really considered those actual feelings. Now we find out that overlords have feelings just like you and those feelings can be hurt.

First a little back story. A few weeks back the overlords closed down a kennel in Arkansas and gave the owner the boot. A bunch of units...er...greyhounds were evacuated from the kennel. Holy Crap, you're thinking, the overlords acted in the best interest of the dogs? Well, maybe, maybe not because instead of sending the canine refugees to forever homes, they sent them to auction. This prompted well known animal rights wacko Carey Theil to question whether the overlords really had the greyhounds' best interests at heart, or whether it was just a question of some money needing to get from where it was into someone's pocket.

Now we have to tell you that overlord Gary Guccione was shocked we tell you shocked that Theil would question his motives and so he took to the overlord website to express his dismay.

When the National Greyhound Association (NGA) evacuated dozens of neglected greyhounds from an Arkansas farm in May and later banned its owner from greyhound racing for life, greyhound welfare advocates around the country applauded. At least, the real greyhound welfare advocates applauded. But not Carey Theil, Grey2K’s top mouthpiece. Instead, Theil condemned NGA’s humane intervention.

OK, but to be perfectly clear there Mr. Guccione sir, he really didn't condemn your intervention, he condemned the fact that you sold the dogs you took off the farm to the highest bidder. You kind of left that part out.

Animosity is surely what drove Carey Theil to condemn NGA for “not pressing charges” against the Arkansas breeder, knowing full well that only the county prosecutor had the authority to do so.

Yeah, except you told the prosecutor not to press charges and said you wouldn't cooperate if he did, so that sort of tied his hands, you know? We're not certain, but we think that's what Theil was upset about.

It was certainly “promoting hostility” when Carey vilified NGA for offering 21 of the evacuated greyhounds at auction, despite the fact that this was required under Kansas lien laws.

Umm...about that "lien" G. You never really explained what that was about, produced the actual document, or clarified how a legal contract between two people who aren't you meant you got to insert yourself into the situation and sell the dogs. Enquiring minds want to know!

The FBI defines hate groups as those whose “primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility and malice” against people of a particular race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or other “immutable characteristic.” Although the Grey2K attacks on greyhound racing aren’t based on any of those “immutable characteristics,” they are certainly filled with animosity, hostility and malice.

OK we think you just said this is how the FBI defines a hate group, but Grey2K doesn't do that, so they're not a hate group as defined by the FBI. Uh...Thank you?

For instance, one Grey2K supporter posted this response to news that a long-time NGA member had died: “I’m sure there’s a special place in hell for him.” A follow-up comment expressed the view that the deceased man’s family members would likely join him there.

 Not really following your thought here big G. How does the opinion of one person commenting on a Grey2K site relate to selling dogs you don't own? Besides, if you want to talk about inappropriate, we've got two words for you, Rory Goree.

Grey2K calls it “education.” We call it “hate speech.”

Hmmm...You might have a point there G².When people see innocent living creatures treated as commodities, put knowingly in harm's way, mistreated and abandoned when they no longer perform...well, they hate that stuff, so if they talk about it. We guess you could call that hate speech in a way.

It’s not about the greyhounds. It’s about the money.

 Again, just to be clear, you are saying that to attack Grey2K and not because it's the industry motto, right? Which way did you take that Abby?

Abby is a very sweet young lady that just wants to be loved. Is that so wrong? She is shy but not afraid to lean into the people she loves. This sweetheart gets along very well with her foster sisters and brother. The kitty was a different story the first few days despite the fact she's a gazillion sizes bigger. Can you say petrified? Gentle is her middle name. Who has love enough to fill this young girls heart? 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.