Greyhounds Lose in New Hampshire

Yesterday, in a horribly-depressing vote of 198-138, New Hampshire's House voted AGAINST a bill that would shut down live racing at its three greyhound race tracks. Man (and  woman!) voted against man's best friend, and greyhounds will continue to suffer and lead hideously-lonely lives, being kenneled for up to 23 hours a day and often muzzled for that time.

Let's deconstruct:

• Greyhounds (and other dogs) do not exist for the use and abuse, entertainment, food, or clothing for people.
• Racing supporters point to the 500 people who work at New Hampshire's three tracks, and also have the nerve to say that a ban might cause a glut of homeless greyhounds. First of all, when any company shuts down, people lose their jobs at that company. If the shut down is planned, a line item in the budget can be added for training and education in other areas, as well as job placement. Such an transition arrangement was part of the plan to ban racing. You don't allow an unethical industry to continue just to employ people--there's something else going on (hint: it rhymes with maintaining and expanding gambling). Furthermore, though it's just the live racing that would be shut down (there would still be simulcast gambling), opponents of shutting it down now have leverage with the very people who will decide if gambling should be expanded. Finally, when a track shuts down, people who care about greyhounds all over the country mobilize to transport the dogs and ease the burden for the area where the tracks closed.
• Rep. Anne-Marie Irwin (D), in a shocking demonstration of a complete absense of ethics or compassion, claimed to love her dog, not be an advocate of gambling, and then say that the testimony about dog treatment proved inconclusive, and worried about the track workers and the dogs. She went to a track and found "playful, curious" hounds, not ones who recoiled from people. I wonder if she went to the kennels and saw where the dogs live, or saw them during the few minutes a day when they aren't kenneled, and would be happy to see anybody. But don't believe me: Check out what a New Hampshire kennel REALLY looks like for yourself. I have just one question for Ms. Irwin: Would you allow your dog to be trained and treated as a greyhound? She also claimed opponents of racing offer "nothing to the animals." A life free of servitude and in a loving home is what they offer. I'm not sure what occurred during the testimony, but I have no idea how this woman came to her conclusions.
• My hero is Rep. Fran Wendelboe,a supporter of the ban, whom I agree with entirely. For her, the issue isn't the hundreds of dogs killed each year. She said,

Could you imagine having to sit in your seat for 23 hours? I mean, we can stand up, we can stretch. (These) dogs can't do that . . . . A dog is man's best friend, and I don't think we should be making profit off their sacrifice and their hard life when we don't have to.

As always, thanks to the tireless efforts of Grey2k USA for speaking up for the voiceless.

This is Violet Rays after surgery to remove her cataracts. She is an insulin-dependent diabetic who became diabetic after her pancreas shut down due to injectable steroids. She went blind and we restored her sight. A year later, her left retina detached and she is now blind in her left eye. The same thing may be happening to her right eye. She was a champion racer until her pancreatitis. She won someone a lot of money, and she was discarded when she became ill.

She is over 7-years old and she still recoils from many people.

Comments

[Deb]

Excellent post. It always comes down to money, it seems. Everything is about what these dogs can do for them. Keep fighting for the greyhounds. They have a great champion in you.