“to maintain (a person, family, establishment, institution, etc.) 

by supplying with things necessary to existence; provide for: to support a family.”

 

That’s straight from dictionary.reference.com.

 

Now I don’t know about you, but the word support, to me, sounds a little bit too weak when speaking about something like greyhound adoption.

 

It’s the type of word a parent would use to say to their son or daughter when it turns they want to become a trendy artist instead of going to law school or something like that “we don’t agree with your decision fully… but support you, ta ta it’s OK here is a kleenex”.

 

Let me be the one to say that we DON’T just simply “support” greyhound adoption.

 

This is what we really think about greyhound adoption:

 

 

We LOVE greyhounds, what can we say!

 

We love dogs and animals in general.

 

Is it so shocking to you that we can be in the industry as a third party as well as loving the animals themselves?

 

For some people it is.

 

Some people simply can not comprehend that 99.999999999999% of the fine people in the industry love their greyhounds dearly and want the best for them while they are training and racing as well as the ones that don’t make it to race day or retire early and aren’t used for breeding.

 

Some of these opinions that greyhound industry people are monsters and that they run meat factories is ignorant to say the least!

 

I’m the type of person that likes to look at a problem and find an honest, reliable, practical and affordable solution that makes everyone (including of course the animals) happy. WIN/WIN.

 

 

But hang on a second… since when did the solution to any problem require a complete shut down of the industry that the problem resides in?

 

It is absolutely ridiculous to call for the industry to be shut down and it is unrealistic to even offer that up as a solution.

 

Let’s put that theory to the test shall we?

 

What if we looked at other industries where people or animals where effected negatively in some cases and lets see what happens when we shut that industry down.

 

ALCOHOL: Did you know that alcohol is only second to tobacco as a preventable cause of death?

So with all the alcohol issues, the deaths directly attributed to it, all the punch ups in pubs and violence in the homes why don’t we just ban it? Lets just ban alcohol altogether because we simply have no other solution. Lets do that and see what happens.

 

Wait a second… they did that in the United States of America once and instead of curbing violence it helped the exponential growth of the Mafia and crime which led to more deaths, more violence, less control and helped create a black market underground for casino’s and drugs that the world had never seen before.

 

In a nut shell, prohibition never worked.

 

AUTOMOTIVE TRANSPORT: Cars KILL and so do stupid drivers. 1464 is the number of total Australian automobile related deaths in 2008. Based on that figure and our new theory we should stop the production of automobiles and of course automotive transport. Seeing as we are doing that, lets stop all forms or transport other than walking because clearly trains and planes kill people (and animals) too.

 

I wonder what would happen?

 

Well for starters it would put a few people out of work. By my count it would be about 86 Million automotive workers out of money… worldwide, 56 Million people working in air transport, aviation and tourism… worldwide and however many millions more that work on trains and other forms of transport like buses and trams.

 

Im not so sure the world bank, wall street or anyone working in economics would like that.

 

Must I go on or do you see the point?

 

How can some people say to the thousands of hard working and dedicated folk that are either directly involved in the industry such as the breeders, the trainers, the owners, race track staff, announcers, veterinarians, food producers etc or the third parties to the industry that they are now going to have to stop doing whatever it is they have been doing (and let me tell you some have been doing it for generations) and find another job or business to get into because there are no other solutions on offer?

 

It is complete and utter madness!

 

Let’s take the conversation away from the industry and it’s people for a moment and let’s talk about the dogs themselves. These animals have been specifically born and bred for thousands of years to chase prey and to basically run really, really fast.

 

Greyhounds themselves love to race. There is no doubt about it. If you have ever seen a happy dog, you would have no trouble knowing via your own eyes that greyhounds love to race once you have seen them compete.

 

So what is there to do for the great greyhound that has been perfectly bred for thousands of years to do what nature intended it to; which is to run, really, really fast and to chase things? Shall we just begin breeding them to be simple pets?

 

All you have to do to come to the same conclusion I have after asking yourself that question is to look at the countless horror stories of pure bred animals for show or as pets.

 

Im not going to debate what I consider a non argument here. Pedigree dogs for show or as pets are proven to have many health issues and ailments due to inbreeding. If you want to look into it further I suggest you do some research online. Here are a few informative articles and 1 video from some very credible sources:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does this mean I believe all pure breeds have ailments? No of course not. Some breeders specifically travel great distances just to diversify the gene pool in their animals. However the reality is that many upon many pure bred dogs have health issues because they have been bred for looks and temperament instead of for the animals health, well being and their natural abilities. 

 

We should be proud of what we have done with the greyhound breed of dog.

 

If all pet or show breeders did what greyhound breeders have done and bred the animal to promote it’s natural abilities and eliminating genetic disorders or breed specific health problems . Then there would be no issue. But that fact of the matter is that most breeders of other canine breeds have bred their dogs for the material purpose of winning medals and looking cute.

 

Inbreeding is a necessity when you want a dog to look and act the same as it’s parents and siblings and it’s taken it’s toll on the dogs gene diversity which has wreaked havoc on their health and well being.

 

Greyhounds love to race and they are bred by the smartest and best dog breeders on the face of this planet!

 

If greyhound racing where to shut down you would have greyhounds being bred for their looks and temperament instead of for their abilities and for diversification. So how does that do anything even remotely positive for the dogs and the breed in general?

 

It doesn’t.

 

 

The short answer is that there is no short answer.

 

Rarely things in life are simple. Some things are black and white, cut and dry but most issues we face as a society are unfortunately many shades of grey. Although those that wish to shut the industry down want it to seem black and white, simple. It really isn’t.

 

However that does not mean we must stop the discussion. At first we need to start a smart, compassionate and honest discussion. A discussion is not; ridiculing, shaming and damning the industry folk in the news and media calling them monsters. A discussion goes two ways.

 

Once a discussion gets going and everyone is on the same page that is when we will see the real solutions come to light.

 

Some things to think about are:

 

Gene selection and gene analysis in greyhounds. This will undoubtedly have an effect on reducing the numbers of dogs euthanized.  If more dogs are chosen fit to race before they are even born then the ones that are born will have a higher likelihood to race instead of being side lined. If the dogs race and they race well they will more than likely go into breeding programs and become a brood bitch or a stud dog.

 

• The Regenus AdiCell arthritis treatment for animals that uses the animals own fat tissue to heal arthritic bones and joints.
• Laser therapy which stimulates healthy cell growth and healing.
• Trigger point therapies and massages
• A Grade premium quality foods which greyhound breeders and trainers spend thousands of dollars a year on, in fact the greyhound racing industry is well known for feeding BARF or other similar mixtures well before the health trend actually kicked off.
• Supplements such as fish oils, electrolytes and other minerals are used quite regularly on greyhounds whereas compared with the regular pet who may never see a vitamin in his entire life.

Education. Educating people from the one time owners right through to the back yard breeders and even families wanting a new pet. If we can educate more people that want to own a dog for the fun of it that they should be inclined to look after the dog after its racing career ends the chances are most people would either be unwilling to go ahead with their new venture or that they would take responsibility of the greyhound after it’s race career.

The same goes with one time or backyard breeders and especially for families on the hunt for a new family pet. I mean it’s still all too common to hear of people that have no idea they can easily and affordable adopt a retired racing greyhound with an excellent story behind them and a great temperament!

Finally, adoption. If we put more effort and time into re-homing greyhounds and finding suitable people and families to adopt them then we could potentially solve two problems at once.

Here is a scary fact seeing as we are talking about canine euthanasia.

We know that in Australia dogs are purchased and then abandoned on a regular basis. Many of those abandoned dogs are then euthanized. That number sits at a whopping 245,783 as per a PIAA (pet industry association paper from 2012).

However we also know that a very large number of the greyhounds that go into adoption programs and are then successfully re-homed stay that way because of the adoptions contracts that some volunteer organizations and adoption programs use as a pre-requisite prior to re-homing.

So would it be too much to ask if we where to discuss the relationship between new dog ownership and greyhound adoption?

To me the relationship is quite clear and strong.

When people want a new dog why can’t we offer them a greyhound?

There are about 450,000 pet dogs purchased each year (again as per PIAA), surely some of those new owners would be interested in a greyhound don’t you think? And with the adoption contracts and home placing that occurs I see no reason for the new owner to then abandon the dog if he or she could simply return it back to the adoption center.

Adoption hurdle overcome

For a long time retired racing greyhounds have under law been required to wear a muzzle in a public place. Although the laws are somewhat different for the states, they are all very similar. This law directly stood in the way and acted as a major hurdle to greyhound retirement programs.

In 2011 the NSW regulation was amended to allow for retired racing greyhounds and pet greyhounds who had successfully completed a re-training program to instead wear a green collar as opposed to the muzzle.

For more information on the Greenhounds initiative go here.

So to all those that are calling the industry folk a bunch of monsters, they need to sit back and have a good hard long think about exactly who is loving, caring, training, re-homing and batting for these animals. If they look closely they just might find its the very same people called monsters.

For more information on adopting a greyhound and or getting the message out please visit:

http://gap.grv.org.au/ VIC

http://www.gapsa.org.au/ SA (also looks after NT)

http://www.greyhoundsaspets.com.au/ WA

http://www.thedogs.com.au/DPage.aspx?spid=130&id=58 NSW (also looks after ACT)

http://www.greyhoundpets.org.au/ QLD

http://www.gaptas.org.au/ TAS

The greyhound racing industry is not going away and it has no reason to, so let’s all try to work together to look after the dogs!