Greyhounds thrive on racing — just ask the adoption community
I find it remarkably counterintuitive that people who are entirely disconnected from the everyday lives of racing greyhounds in Florida, or of greyhounds anywhere else, seem to have been given the media’s imprimatur to speak as authorities on the subject.
Their scripted sound bites, their vacuous, virtue-signaling rhetoric, and their breed myopia could only be the stuff of those who have absolutely no conception or appreciation of the greyhound as a unique population of canines, with a unique canine culture and a unique heritage of pure athleticism.
They display even less vision for the future of the greyhound, for the preservation of his diverse genetic wellsprings and bloodlines — which racing alone provides — or for the inevitable, genetic Armageddon that would befall the greyhound breed, should the financial supports of racing be eliminated.
Meanwhile, it should be noted by every Florida voter that the vanguard of opposition to the “Yes on 13” cabal of multimillion-dollar, national and international animalrights, fund-raising juggernauts are the volunteers who provide adoption services for these greyhounds once their racing careers are over, alongside those who have become his adopters in retirement.
You read that correctly. It’s not the racetracks; nor is it the national or the Florida greyhound associations that are leading the fight, boots-on-the-ground, against the prohibition of greyhound racing. It is the greyhound adoption community of volunteer welfare providers, and the racing greyhound’s dedicated fan base of adopters.
Currently, there are 77 nonprofit greyhound adoption groups that have joined the battle against the tyranny of scorched-earth, animal-rights extremists, and who have decided to make it a matter of public record, that they be counted among those who are squarely against question 13, which seeks to ban live, pari-mutuel greyhound racing in Florida. There are thousands more adopters who are in lock-step with them. All of which begs the question: Who, do we suppose, knows more about the everyday existence and treatment of these greyhounds and, more importantly, how the greyhounds themselves feel about their lives as performing athletes?
The office-dwelling CEOs of animal-rights lobbying groups, who have never even been to a racetrack, a breeding establishment or a racing kennel, and who have never so much as laid hands upon a racing greyhound, and who provide no welfare services for the greyhounds?
Or could it be those adoption volunteers, who work and interact with greyhound racing kennels on a person-to-person basis, with breeders, owners and trainers, and on a person-to-greyhound basis with the dogs themselves? Adoption volunteers have dedicated significant portions of their lives to care for and re-home these greyhounds after they are done racing, and they are intimately familiar with the daily, weekly and monthly activities and goings-on in the racing (and breeding) environs of the greyhound.
If racing were indeed “cruel” and “inhumane,” as critics say, why would these volunteer greyhound welfare providers and adopters, who have no financial stake in the business of racing but whose efforts are entirely dedicated to the ongoing welfare of the racing greyhound, become the tip of the spear in the fight against animalrights radicalism?