Originally posted by micki76
Ok. Now you're making blanket statements and saying none of this exists at all. I'm sorry, but surely you must admit that it does happen to some extent. I'm sure there's all level of corruption in Greyhound racing, just as there is in horse racing and other sports that involve humans, money, and anything (or anyone) who can't speak up for themselves.

I hope that doesn't come accross as an attack, I just felt that was an innacurate statement. I realize that not all tracks are evil, or staffed with dog killers, but to close your eyes and say it's all great and nothing the other side says is true, is burying your head in the sand as I stated earlier.
Let's stick with the issues of puppy culling and 4D meat for now to prevent this from going in several directions at once.

Puppy Culling

"As of 2001, the Greyhound Protection League estimated close to 27,000 dogs were registered to race, most born at professional breeding farms. In 2001, close to 18,000 puppies and adult greyhounds were culled or killed, according to the organization."

There is no need to estimate the numbers of dogs registered. The figures are published monthly in Greyhound Review:

2003 26,277
2002 27,142
2001 26,797
2000 26,464
1999 27,059
1998 26,036
1997 28,025
1996 28,877

Note that there has been a downward trend in registrations over the years. Historically, 80% of all pups whelped are registered. In the only five year span I could find recorded, here are the actual whelpings:

2000 34,141
1999 33,256
1998 35,801
1997 35,730
1996 36,688

Using the 2,000 figures as an example, GPL simply subtracts 26,464 from 34,141 and assumes that 7,677 pups were "culled." They do not take into account that every birth, whether stillborn or not, every puppy, whether sickly or not, is factored into that 34,141 figure. Puppy mortality in dogs can be as high as 30%, higher in small breeds, but is typically 15-25 percent. If you do the math on our 2000 example the number is 22.5%. According to the AR crowd, all these puppies were "culled." Additionally, a number of puppies who are obviously unsuitable for the track are sold as pets. These, of course, were "culled," too.

"Puppy culling" is one of the central myths of the Anti-Racing movement. It is the only way they can make their numbers work. The truth is that there is no possible reason to cull puppies in greyhounds. In show dogs, a puppy with a coat color that is not to the breed standard is often destroyed. The only time a puppy will be euthanized at a greyhound farm is when it is born so sickly that its survivability is in doubt and the only question is how much suffering it will endure. At the farm where my greyhounds were raised the farmer goes to extreme measures to save every sick puppy. One such puppy slept in her bed for three weeks until healthy enough to return to his dam. His name is Express Scrapper and he went on to finish third in the 2003 Great Greyhound Race to future Hall-of-Famer EA's Itzaboy. He earned his name Scrapper because of his will to live.

A good dam will cost you $1,000 to $15,000. The breeding to a top sire costs $1,000 to $3,000. The Artificial Implantation fees are around $500. Transportation of the bitch to the sire and back by truck could be $200 depending on distance---by air even more. With up-front costs that could range from $3,000 to $20,000, why would anyone cull the results? Furthermore, pups at the most recent NGA auction fetched $2,500 to $51,000. Why would someone deprive themselves of this income potential? The belief in culling by the AR movement is unfounded, confounding and illogical.

4D meat

The much derided 4D meat (Dead, Decaying, Diseased, Disabled) is a favorite of the AR crowd who do not understand what it is. It is, in fact, any meat not approved for human use. Imagine a line of steers at a slaughterhouse. While in line, a cow falls over and dies of an aneurysm. It could be dragged ten feet into the building and butchered, but is officially unfit for human consumption by the USDA because it died and was not killed. The primary buyer of 4D meat is the pet food induustry. If you use a premium brand of dog food, you fed some to your pet today.

My farmer friend's husband had duties out of town so I volunteered to help pick up a load of beef from a slaughterhouse to take to her farm, a ton in all. We got a little tour of the facility inculding the "kill" floor where several carcasses were being cut up by workers with electric chainsaws suspended from overhead racks. The meat was loaded on pallets and rolled directly to the grinder and then directly into the freezer. From there, the meat was delivered to greyhound kennels, farms and dogfood manufacturers by refrigerated trucks.

To me, the most interesting part of the tour was meeting a USDA inspector. He was there taking samples of the brains of every cow to inspect for Mad Cow Disease. I thought it was especially interesting that they were inspecting for Mad Cow even though none of the meat at this facility was destined for human consumption.

You might also be interested to know that the USDA has mandated that charcoal chips are mixed in with 4D meat to render it unpalatable to human consumption. It seems that many people know that 4D meat is really no different than regular ground beef and found the cost at 20% of grocery store prices appealing.