Born to Die?
Obviously, not every young Greyhound is going to make it to the track. Says Guccione, "This year, there will be about 48,000 pups whelped or born and practically all of these will be litter registered. In about a year and a half, about 38,000 will end up getting individually registered and named before they go to the track."
As for the 10,000 culled pups, Guccione says that "some of the pups may be used for breeding, some will be given away as pets. And some will, unfortunately, be euthanized."
While NGA figures indicate that each year 20 percent of litter registered pups face a dubious future, Robert Baker, Chief Investigator for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), says the actual number of culled puppies is much, much higher. "A few years ago," Baker reports, "the Florida Greyhound Breeders Association - and Florida is one of the biggest racing states in the country - stated that at best only 30 percent of the dogs bred ever become qualified to race. From the time these dogs are born and don't have the right conformation, to the time they go the whirligig training, to the time they go to the training track and then to the regular track trying to become qualified, they're being culled out constantly."
Judith Donaldson, top breeder of AKC show Greyhounds and member of Run Or Die, an anti-Greyhound racing organization, says, "Only one puppy out of every ten born ever races one race. At age 11 months, if they can't time at a minimum speed at a training track, they're dead meat."
Donaldson, whose information on racing Greyhound practices comes from former members of the Greyhound industry ("people with consciences"), says culled puppies are not adopted or given away. "Absolutely not. They don't want their stock to go out to other people. It's like Sak's not selling a dress; will you give it to me? No! These dogs are dead. Zip. They're gone. If you take them down in the basement and club them to death, who's going to know.
"These people aren't animal lovers," she adds. "These people didn't get into Greyhound racing because they love the bow-wows. They love the money, the buck."
adopt-a-greyhound.org
* * * |
