I voted for "Been a time or two," and it's true and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I wanted a chance to express myself so badly that I just felt I had to reply here, after years of never saying anything regarding racing.

Bottom line is, there is no justification for inhumane treatment of animals, whether racing or not. I think we can all agree there. And there is justification for the fact that these dogs LOVE TO RUN. With that said, I do believe every dog deserves a warm, comfy couch and a family of their own (whether 1 person or 10) to love them like no other. That and that alone leads me to have mixed feelings regarding dog racing. I don't actively support it but I don't actively denigrate it either because I am EDUCATED and I seek to become more educated about it with each passing day.

I have gone to a couple of races and I DO SEE how happy the dogs are when they have won and they are paraded around -- they know they won! I do not doubt that the majority of people involved in racing take care of the hounds -- just as there are bad apples within shelters and within pet homes, there are bad (and good) apples here. I adopted my hounds from a wonderful woman who worked at the Sarasota Kennel so she had her allegiances. Yet she managed to have a 100% success rate in getting hounds adopted out after they were retired, whether it be to adoption groups or to individuals like myself.

I think we could all strive to learn a little more before we make snap judgements. It's one thing to form your own opinion -- it's another to force that opinion on others in order to defame or slander them, regardless of what side they or you might be on.