Greyhound Racing Essay

It can make life tough for their new adopters – especially at the start.In my professional work training some of these dogs, I have worked with a number of people who adopted ex-racing greyhounds, only to discover that they refuse to go for walks, can’t be left alone, and react aggressively to other dogs they meet.

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What also concerns me about suggesting that these dogs are good with children is the information being used to make that assessment.Poorly socialised to life outside of racing, they are bred and trained to chase, and under stimulated for much of their racing lives.Many racing greyhounds live a very insular existence which does not set them up for the transition to domestic homes.A spokesperson for the charity said: We believe these figures disguise a life of suffering and a deplorable end for many of these dogs who are simply born to be raced.It’s time greyhound racing was consigned to the ranks of cruel sports that are no longer acceptable. It’s a gambling industry and the dogs are its commodities.Without specialist help and support, these dogs are anything but the “easy” pets some owners expect them to be.Many greyhounds exhibit a passive coping style, which is typical of their breed.They quite often “freeze” if they become overwhelmed by a situation (rather than opting for fight or flight). After the release of the sobering statistics relating to their racetrack fate, chief executive of the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, Mark Bird, commented: “There were 348 dogs this year for whom no home could be found and our mission is to reduce this number to zero.” He added: “Greyhounds make calm, gentle and loveable pets that are excellent with children.” As well as being a hugely sweeping statement – greyhounds are all individual dogs, after all – comments like this are misleading, inaccurate and potentially downright dangerous.No group of dogs can be simply described as “good with children”.Track owners and trainers pushed back, saying the dogs were well cared for and would not race if they were unhealthy or neglected.But as Florida is home to 11 of the nation’s 17 active dog tracks, there is a concern that the networks of people who find new owners for dogs at the end of their short racing careers will be overwhelmed.“There is no way to know when the tracks will close or how many dogs are coming into the market, so we are sitting on pins and needles, but also quietly working to try to find new foster homes, calling vets about care packages and looking for people willing to drive vans to Florida to pick the dogs up,” said Carol Becker, president of God’s Greyts, a greyhound adoption group in Orlando that opposed the amendment on the basis that the dogs were already well cared for.“We are trying to avoid a crisis if too many tracks close around the same time and there are not enough homes lined up,” she added.