The real world of greyhound racing 2
March 17th 2011 02:27
And like many things which have a poor reputation, it can be made worse by self-righteous, indignant criticism from people who do not not the full story.
Jennie Alcorn does know the full story. She is a veteran of greyhound ownership, fostering and support through Greyhound Adoption Program volunteering in South Australia. And in her years serving retired greyhounds in these various capacities, she has had a lot of contact with the greyhound racing community.
In this series of articles, Jennie presents an objective insight into the positives, and occasional negatives, of greyhound racing.
. . . o O o . . .
By JENNIE ALCORN
Greyhound racing enables an animal to do what it was bred to do.
We have reduced so many dog breeds from their original purpose to that of show dog or pet. I am certainly not against the role of pet dog, but how many frustrated guard dogs, shepherds and terriers do you see in homes where the owners have no idea how to engage the brains and energy levels of these highly intelligent animals. In addition, so many breeds of dogs have become travesties of the original animal because they are now bred purely for their looks, and those looks have become exaggerated way beyond the original purpose.
Greyhounds bred to race are bred to be athletes. They are bred from a huge gene pool because any winning dog is worth breeding from, whatever it looks like.
In research done in Britain in 2008, greyhounds were proven to be the healthiest (and incidentally the least aggressive) of the 33 most popular breeds of dog in Britain at that time. This is simply because they don't have the multitude of genetic defects carried in the lines of other pure breeds bred from a limited number of champions.
Groups determined to ban racing are going to end up throwing the baby out with the bath water. Without racing, greyhounds would either die out or go down the sad route of being bred to a show standard and never doing what they do best.
If the racing code in the United States and the unlicensed courses in Britain took a good hard look at themselves and set to work to clean up their act there would be no need for the anti-racing groups to operate.
The other thing that riles me quite a bit in the attacks on greyhound racing is the lack of perspective. Everyone condemns the racing world for putting the greyhounds down at the end of their racing careers. I'm definitely against that, and am heavily involved in the program to give them a life after racing, and as I've said British and Australian greyhound racing authorities strongly discourage this practice.
Do the critics, however, ever look at the statistics for show dogs (in Britain at least it has been proven that many pups are destroyed because they don't exhibit the desired features) or for the average age at which pet dogs die, when they make their accusations?
This figure for the US, Britain and Australia, I've been told, is about 2 and 1/2 years. The reason? You don't have to have a licence to buy a pet dog, or to breed it, or to sell it to people ignorant of the most basic rules about dog care, or to dispose of it how you like when you are tired of it. There is no system of inspection to ensure you are caring for the dog properly or that you have the necessary knowledge to provide it with a good home.
In short, owning a pet dog is like the unlicensed side of British greyhound racing, and it invites an even greater level of irresponsibility because people who buy a pet dog on impulse aren't trying to achieve something with their pet dog as unlicensed British trainers are with their greyhounds.
Impulse pet buyers probably aren't thinking about the pup's future at all. Despite the best will in the world and many hours of effort to socialise and support the large numbers of dogs abandoned at animal shelters, these shelters cannot find homes for all of the abandoned dogs and cannot afford to keep them all. Inevitably, many have to be put down.
I believe in Sweden there are rules for the ownership of pet dogs which are similar to the rules owners of racing greyhounds have to abide by here and in Britain, and it is almost impossible to obtain a shelter dog there. There is apparently only one shelter in Sweden, because only one is needed. Its purpose is to provide a temporary home for animals whose owners have died or who have had to relinquish their pet due to a change in their circumstances. The shelter doesn't have a lot of work to do as there is a waiting list of people eager to provide homes for these unfortunate pets.
If only Britain, Australia and the United States had rules like this.
. . . o O o . . .
Note from the writer: This article was dedicated partly to clarifying some things which are often misunderstood, but its principal aim is to generate interest in fostering greyhounds. Greyhound adoption programs do a great deal of work with dogs before placing them in adoptive homes, including a careful screening process in a home environment. This both introduces dogs to inside living, and helps identify individual characteristics. The result is a greatly enhanced ability to create suitable dog-adoptive home matches.
However, it takes time and resources, and it is often the single biggest bottleneck in the adoptive process.
Wherever you are, there is a strong likelihood that your local greyhound adoption or welfare group needs more volunteers in the fostering process. It is important and very rewarding work.
If you found the article above interesting, please consider contacting your local greyhound adoption group and having a chat about what it takes to foster a dog.
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