Dog Races

[zaylagrey]

...And there's member's on Grey talk that are nuetral and anti-racing as well, mainly because they don't like the gambling aspect of it or they work in the adoption trenches and see dogs come in in horrible shape. Like I said before you got GPL on one side and the racing industry on the other and the truth lies somewhere in between.

[7up]

I don't know if this has been mentioned already, but there are also other greyhound message boards and the Greyhound-List that have a different ratio of pro vs. anti racing members/opinions.

GreyTalk is the one that the racing folks are concentrating most of their effort on.

Jay

[jcsperson]

Originally posted by aly
I don't know why it is automatically assumed that we don't know anything about it here. Not one person has ever denied that there is good in it. We have all acknowledged that.

I disagree. Go back and read some of the posts that used adjectives like "sick," "disgusting" and "inhumane" to describe greyhound racing.

[jcsperson]

Originally posted by 7up
I don't know if this has been mentioned already, but there are also other greyhound message boards and the Greyhound-List that have a different ratio of pro vs. anti racing members/opinions.

GreyTalk is the one that the racing folks are concentrating most of their effort on.

Their "effort," Jay?

You make it sound like a PR campaign---a concerted lobbying effort to spread propaganda and brainwash the masses.

What you are seeing is greyhound lovers of a different sort than you are used to seeing. GT people are finding out that racing people take cutesy pictures of their dogs, have little nicknames for them, and let them sleep in their beds.

We aren't hammer-wielding Neanderthals culling puppies for kicks as GPL likes to paint us.

[aly]

Originally posted by jcsperson
I disagree. Go back and read some of the posts that used adjectives like "sick," "disgusting" and "inhumane" to describe greyhound racing.

I am pretty sure almost everyone who used one of those adjectives has come back and acknowledged that there is good in racing, but they were disgusted with the bad Some of us did get carried away at first after the post saying that there was NO bad in it so stronger words may have been used.

[Love Greyhounds]

Originally posted by jcsperson
Their "effort," Jay?

You make it sound like a PR campaign---a concerted lobbying effort to spread propaganda and brainwash the masses.

What you are seeing is greyhound lovers of a different sort than you are used to seeing. GT people are finding out that racing people take cutesy pictures of their dogs, have little nicknames for them, and let them sleep in their beds.

We aren't hammer-wielding Neanderthals culling puppies for kicks as GPL likes to paint us.

I say again, that the truth lies somewhere inbetween. The extremist end of the pro-racing faction perceives AR, ARA, and anyone who says anything negative, to be an enemy. If the industry was sufficiently policing itself, there would be very little negative publicity, and no need for anyone else to be concerned about it. It's a cop-out to keep using the GPL as an excuse.

Of course, 4D meat is perfectly safe, and anyone who wants to google Alabama Rot will find the connection.

[cali]

who said their was NO bad in greyhound racing? I did not plan to get into this again, but I shall take a quote from my post that got attacked in the first place:

there ARE greys that are treated badly

[DogLover9501]

Originally posted by cali
who said their was NO bad in greyhound racing? I did not plan to get into this again, but I shall take a quote from my post that got attacked in the first place:

You also said that they are rarely in danger of being put down, and in your very first post in this thread it SEEMED as if you were saying that ALL racing greyhounds get massages, one on one time, high quality food, and all get placed in homes/rescues.

I think that's what Aly meant.

[jcsperson]

Originally posted by K9soul
Ok in all honesty, I really wish it would become a leisure sport and not a money-making business because I think the fact that money and gambling is involved is what makes it, IN MY OPINION, have more potential for some owners to make the dollar their top priority to the detriment of their dogs. I feel the same about horse racing. Now where my education is limited is just how much money is typically involved in it, and how easy it is to "make it big" by having successful racers. I fully admit to being uneducated on that aspect.

Your wish sounds promising, but the problem is that the number of greyhounds that actually participate in lure coursing is very small. Right now the greyhound gene pool is genetically diverse with more than 500 sires and thousands of brood bitches representing 46 greyhound families.

By contrast, the AKC registers only about 160 dogs per year. They're pedigrees are saturated with the same bloodlines.

Here is a typical example I clicked on at random on Greyhound-data.com:

http://www.greyhound-data.com/db.php?i=351773

Note its ancestors:
Treetops Hawk 4*4*4*4*4*4*5*5*6
Treetops Flicka of Canfield 5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5*6*6*6*6
Treetops Golden Falcon 3*3*4
Courtmoor Christmas Star 3*3
Treetops Penelope of Canfield 4*4*5*5
Barum Carlanga Conquest 5*5*6*6*6*6*6*6*6
Parcancady Dancer 5*6*6*6*6*6*6*6*6
Parcancady Lady 5*6*6*6*6*6*6*6
Viverdon Fancy Lady 5*6

Compare that disaster with the most tightly linebred NGA greyhound I know:

http://www.greyhound-data.com/db.php?i=261494

Fresh Approach 3*3
My Unicorn 3*4
Final Approach 4*4*4
Onie Jones 4*4*4
Carbella 4*4

It doesn't take a dog breeder to see the difference. AKC greyhounds are dangerously inbred. At 160 dogs a year it qualifies as a rare breed.

Right now, the AKC breeders have the luxury of being able to outcross occasionally to NGA blood. If racing went away completely that "safety valve" would be lost as breedings would plummet. Greyhound racing is the "family business" for 100s of breeders. If they could not make a living at it they would be completely disinclined to continue the expensive proposition of breeding greyhounds---they'd be too busy putting their lives back together and looking for work. Some of these folks are three and four generation breeders whose families shaped the greyhound we have today. Their breeding stock is a storehouse of greyhound genetic history. With these professionals out of the business the breed would be left to the backyard breeder with all that portends.

[cali]

ok, its not what I intended I know and freely admit that not all racing greys are treated wonderfully, and I did not intend to say that, I did not know people thought I believed that all were treated wonderfully so when I saw alys post I figered I would clear that up lol

[aly]

Looks like there were misunderstandings all around then

So we all finally agree that there is SOME good and SOME bad and we will do our best to help the ones in the bad situations!!! *phew*

[jcsperson]

Originally posted by Love Greyhounds
I say again, that the truth lies somewhere inbetween. The extremist end of the pro-racing faction perceives AR, ARA, and anyone who says anything negative, to be an enemy. If the industry was sufficiently policing itself, there would be very little negative publicity, and no need for anyone else to be concerned about it. It's a cop-out to keep using the GPL as an excuse.

Of course, 4D meat is perfectly safe, and anyone who wants to google Alabama Rot will find the connection.

Alabama Rot is the same as e coli bacterial infections in humans. Like the celebrated cases in the Seattle area where cooked USDA grade A was mishandled and undercooked, the 4D connection to Alabama Rot is another sensationalized aspect of the ARA story.

Do you know how many cases of this occur per year? I don't, but the the number almost certainly is very small. The vast majority of farms and kennels have never had a single case. I've been involved with greyhounds for 11 years and have actual personal knowledge of a single case and I have met, handled or seen 1,000s of greyhounds.

Just as in the Seattle hamburger situation, the problem almost certainly has more to do with mishandling the meat rather than the meat itself.

[7up]

We aren't hammer-wielding Neanderthals culling puppies for kicks as GPL likes to paint us.

Martin, do you realize how close your description fits a certain, recently expelled greyhound farmer?

Jay

[K9soul]

The inbreeding that goes on with AKC show breeders is something I do know about and I find it disgusting and alarming. Some people try to go to a "reputable" AKC breeder in order to get a quality dog of a particular breed, probably not realizing how polluted the bloodlines often are, though I believe some breeds are worse than others, and again not all breeders participate in inbreeding.

That issue is definitely something I feel needs to be regulated...I don't understand why they just don't disallow inbred dogs to be registered and shown. At least then "AKC registered such and such" would mean something..

But then this is a whole different issue and really doesn't pertain to this thread's topic.

[greysandmoregreys]

Just a little information about this whole 4D meat.

I've worked with greyhounds within the industry for about 10 years now.

The words Alabama Rot are thrown around way to much. I had a trainer call me the other day and say he thought one of the dogs had the "rot"

Turns out the dog had a small nick that he didn't see, got infected and created a wound.

How many of you have missed a small nick or scratch, that you never knew existed and then a day or two later you have an infection in the cut.

In my 10 with the greyhounds I have NEVER seen a case of Alabama Rot. There may have been things that people thought it was but turns out it wasn't.
Just a little more information about Alabama Rot from the book Care of the Racing Greyhound by Linda Blythe, James Gannon and A, MOrrie Craig

"The cause of the disease is not specifically known and may differ from area to area, but bacteria or bacterial toxin invading therough the skin layers is believed to be the basic problem."

So now you have a weakened system this is when ecoli or other bacteria will take it's opportunity to attack the system.

So just like humans a healthy human can eat raw or rare meat and not have to many problems. Normally at most get a bit sick and throw up or something.

But take an older person or a very younge person, or a person with a weak system and give them raw or rare meat the the possibility of greater sickness will come about.

That's all, also I haven't posted in this thread for a while and just wanted to say
HELLO