OP-ED | Keep Dog Racing In The Past
On Wednesday, the Oregon Senate voted unanimously to ban puppy racing. Just like Connecticut, the last greyhound race occurred there additional than a 10 years in the past. But retiring Senate President Peter Courtney under no circumstances wants to see Multnomah Greyhound Park open up once again.
In speaking for the passage of his remaining, legacy invoice, he created crystal clear that pet dog racing belongs in the earlier. “If there is at any time an concern that is not Democratic, not Republican, not city, and not rural, it is animals,” he explained. “I do not know how you could do this to an animal that you are utilizing to make funds. I do not know how you could take care of an animal like that.”
By all accounts, pet racing was a failed experiment in Connecticut. Tracks 1st opened in 1976, many years soon after greyhound gambling experienced very first been legalized in other states and just before the industry started its downward spiral. Due to the fact 2001, 44 tracks have shut nationwide and two additional services in two other states are in the procedure of shutting down now. Although are living racing finished in the point out in 2005, beneath present regulation, possessing and functioning pet dog racing tracks is permitted and legal in Connecticut.
By contrast, betting on canines is prohibited in 41 states including all the other New England states. The Nutmeg State remains a single of only nine states in the nation wherever greyhound racing is continue to on the books. West Virginia, with its two tracks, stands by itself as the only state to embrace this Melancholy-period exercise. Since the industry is swiftly dissolving, Connecticut is viewed as fertile floor and provides an open door for the reopening of its puppy tracks, the place they when existed and are continue to authorized. The threat of a resurgence is true and one thing that old-time racing breeders are counting on.
All through the racing marketplace, greyhounds are subject matter to typical methods that are cruel and inhumane this kind of as excessive confinement, drugging, deficiency of veterinary care, and meal plans dependent on raw “4-D” diseased meat.
According to point out data, a West Virginia greyhound dies each and every 10 times and due to the fact 2008, practically 10,000 racing injuries have been described. The most widespread injury is a broken leg but at least a person doggy was lately killed mainly because of a damaged toe nail that took him off the roster.
Other regular accidents include broken necks, paralysis, seizures and loss of life by electrocution. Doggy racing is cruel and inhumane and will cause actual struggling. Like pet dog preventing, it should really no more time be recognized or tolerated. That’s why the people of Florida recently went to the ballot and voted by a margin of 69{aa306df364483ed8c06b6842f2b7c3ab56b70d0f5156cbd2df60de6b4288a84f} to modify their structure to close the state’s 12 pet dog tracks for fantastic. The Sunshine State was the to start with to legalize the action in 1931, but instances have altered and the idea of seeing canines operate close to in circles, although subjecting by themselves to perilous possibility, is no more time viewed as a “sport.”
It should be observed that countless numbers of pet dogs are destroyed each year when they are no more time lucrative. The National Greyhound Affiliation does not hold records of greyhounds when they quit carrying out so these puppies merely disappear from document. Below in Connecticut, when Plainfield Greyhound Park abruptly introduced its closure, the two community and national media claimed that the practically 1,000 canine there confronted a comparable destiny.
Plainfield was described as a past halt for older and damage-vulnerable puppies, dogs that had small possibility of winning somewhere else. The negative publicity was so rigorous that the New York Times published at minimum 3 tales on the dilemma and nationwide television commentators also expressed considerations for the dogs. As a end result, Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Attorney Normal Richard Blumenthal stepped in to call for the monitor to account for each and every dog and for an orderly process of launch to ready adopters.
A the latest investigation exposed proof of reside entice teaching on 4 greyhound breeding farms in four states. Also identified as “jacking” or “blooding,” this despicable and cruel teaching method is a staple of the business and involves the use of smaller animals, frequently rabbits, to excite and improve a chase intuition in young greyhounds. Normally, screaming bunnies are dangled prior to the canine, dragged in front of them on ropes, or simply just set free to be attacked. These fragile animals typically experience cruel and depressing fatalities.
Fortunately, recent legislation has been filed to tackle these difficulties. Lawmakers now have the opportunity to guard puppies by passing HB 5174, An Act Prohibiting Greyhound Racing. This humane measure will guarantee that doggy racing and its attendant cruelty under no circumstances find a house in Connecticut once more. It is time to convey the point out into the 21st-century mainstream by rejecting an old-fashioned and cruel form of gambling.
My rescued greyhound, Gina, is betting on it.
