Dogs always lose at greyhound tracks
September 15th, 2006 by admin
Today, The Palm Beach Post printed the last in a series of articles about a dog flu outbreak that hit Palm Beach County in July. Palm Beach County Animal Care & Control suspended adoptions, and 56 dogs who were exposed to the flu were killed to prevent the spread of the disease. Across town at The Palm Beach Kennel Club, a number of sick dogs forced the track to limit its racing schedule.
The highly contagious flu first hit Florida in 1999. That year, Derby Lane greyhound track in St. Petersburg closed for a month; 500 dogs got sick and six died. The flu struck again in 2004, infecting racing greyhounds in Jacksonville (8 dogs died).
The Post articles were mostly about efforts to track and treat the disease, but the articles highlighted several sad facts about the dog racing industry:
-Racing greyhounds are often fed poor quality food. Some scientists believe the influenza strain originated in horses and spread when trainers fed dogs “raw horse meat- deemed unfit for human consumption.”
-The Post noted, “Greyhound racers often travel cross-country in huge transport trucks.” Besides contributing to a miserable life for dogs, constant travel helped to spead the dog flu to every track in the country by 2004.
-The Post profiled greyhound kennel owner Tim Cahill. Cahill “raises over 100 pups bred from past champions” at his property in Ona (north of Arcadia). Sadly, many of these puppies will never become fast enough to race and will be killed. Thousands of unwanted greyhounds are killed every year in the U.S.
-Even for “winning” dogs, racing is a stressful and dangerous experience. Dogs routinely suffer injuries during races. One of Cahill’s dogs won 26 races “until a broken foot ended the greyhound’s career this summer.”
-Dog racing is an industry in decline. The Post reported that “In 2001-02, Florida coffers took in $19.6 million in taxes from greyhound winnings.” This number dropped to $17.2 million in 2002-03, and to $12.7 million in 2004-05 (that season, sick dogs led to the cancellation of 1,080 races.
The newspaper’s series was also interesting because of its photographs. One showed greyhounds crammed into bare metal kennels (greyhounds are caged at track kennels up to 22 hours a day). Another photo showed a wall full of drugs for racing greyhounds at Cahill’s kennel. (click here to view all the photographs)