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say no to animal racing

帖子发表于 : 周日 10月 04, 2015 6:08 pm
admin
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-e ... nd-racing/

The greyhound racing industry treats dogs like machines. For the few minutes that they spend on a track during a race, they will spend many hours a day confined to a cramped cage or kennel. Countless numbers of greyhounds die each year—some in the name of “selective breeding”—before they ever touch a racetrack. Dogs start racing at 18 months old, and many don’t make it to the nominal “retirement” age of 4 or 5.

CAGED GREYHOUND

According to statistics compiled by GREY2K USA Worldwide in its 2015 report “High Stakes: Greyhound Racing in the United States,” more than 80,000 greyhounds were registered to race between 2008 and 2014. An average of between 500 and 1,000 dogs at a time are required in order to operate a racetrack. Sickness and injuries claim the lives of many dogs. Since 2008, more than 11,700 greyhound injuries have been documented nationwide, including heart attacks, heatstroke, electrocution, fractured skulls, broken necks, and more than 3,000 broken legs. Until recently, Florida, which is home to more than half of the nation’s tracks, wasn’t even required to report greyhound injuries to the public. This means that the total number of injuries is undoubtedly far higher.

In addition, nearly 1,000 greyhound deaths have been documented since 2008. In Florida alone, state records show that, on average, a greyhound used for racing dies every three days. Some recent examples of greyhound deaths include the following:

In April 2014, the skull of a 1-year-old greyhound named Colt Maximus was crushed in a training race at Wheeling Island in West Virginia.
A 3-year-old greyhound named LNB Night Mare was electrocuted after she collided with another dog and fell into the electrified rail during a race in March 2014 at Tucson Greyhound Park in Arizona.
In September 2013, a 1-year-old greyhound named Kells Crossfire was euthanized after she hit the rail and broke her neck at Gulf Greyhound Park in Texas.
In July 2013, a 3-year-old greyhound named Scotty’s Buzz was euthanized after sustaining a severe spinal injury during a race at Dubuque Greyhound Park in Iowa.
Although they’re extremely sensitive to heat and cold, likely because of their lack of body fat and their thin coats, greyhounds are forced to race in extreme conditions—ranging from subzero temperatures to sweltering heat of more than 100 degrees. Three dogs were found dead of heat exhaustion in August 2007 at the Daytona Beach Kennel Club in Florida.

Emaciated Greyhound

Greyhounds may be drugged in order to improve performance, and females are injected with steroids in order to prevent them from going into heat. Even cocaine has been found at greyhound racetracks. Since 2008, 16 dogs in Florida and Alabama have tested positive for cocaine. One Florida trainer had his license suspended after three dogs in his care tested positive for cocaine.

Other dogs die during transport from one racetrack to another. It’s common to carry up to 60 greyhounds in one truck, with two or three dogs per crate, and to line the floor of these “haulers” with ice rather than providing air conditioning. The backs of the trucks may reach temperatures in excess of 100 degrees on a summer day—deadly conditions for animals who can’t sweat in order to cool themselves. Several greyhounds died on a truck during a 100-mile trip between Naples, Florida, and Miami.

Conditions for the animals “at home” often aren’t much better. Some puppies have their dew claws amputated without any anesthetics. The dogs may spend up to 20 hours a day in cages and are kept constantly muzzled. Many dogs have crate and muzzle sores and suffer from infestations of internal and external parasites. A Massachusetts man was charged with cruelty to animals after 10 greyhounds on his farm were found to be severely dehydrated and malnourished.

Since 2008, at least 27 cases of greyhound abuse and neglect have been documented, including situations in which dogs were denied veterinary care, starved to death, or kept in inadequate kennel conditions. In 2010, investigators acting on a tip discovered 32 dead greyhounds at the Ebro Greyhound Park kennel in Florida. The dogs had been starved to death. Greyhound trainer Ronald Williams was charged with felony cruelty to animals in the case and sentenced to five years in prison. In West Virginia, a greyhound named Kiowa Dutch Girl broke her leg on the morning of March 4, 2013, and was left to suffer in her cage for four days. A kennel worker described the leg as “bleeding, dangling” and admitted that she had been left in her cage “panting [heavily]” in pain for days.

Injured Greyhound

What Happens When Dogs Don’t Win?

Some “retired” greyhounds are put up for adoption, others are sent to breeding farms, and the fate of the remaining dogs is unknown. The National Greyhound Association, which registers all greyhounds for racing, doesn’t keep track of the dogs after they leave the track. Executive Director Gary Guccione admits that there are “[n]o cumulative annual records” of the ultimate fate of dogs used for racing.

In 2003, a former greyhound kennel owner was fined and jailed after netting hundreds of thousands of dollars from selling more than 1,000 greyhounds for medical experiments after fraudulently guaranteeing their adoption.

At Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park in the early 1990s, a greyhound who was not fast enough was taken from her crate and placed on a wet floor in the middle of a room full of partying racetrack employees. A man then shoved a metal wire into her rectum, attached an alligator clip to her lip, and electrocuted her. Witnesses said that it wasn’t the first time that a dog at the park had been killed in this manner. The state of Idaho has since banned dog racing.

In 2002, the remains of approximately 3,000 greyhounds from Florida racetracks were discovered on the Alabama property of a former racetrack security guard who had been “retiring” unwanted greyhounds with a .22-caliber rifle for more than 40 years. The attorney for the accused, who faced up to 10 years in prison on felony cruelty-to-animals charges, said, “If there’s anybody to be indicted here, it’s the industry because this is what they’re doing to these animals. The misery begins the day they’re born. The misery ends when my client gets ahold of them and puts a bullet in their head.”

Other Victims

Some trainers teach greyhounds to chase and kill live animals who are hung from horizontal poles so that the dogs will also chase the inanimate lures used during actual races. While the industry now officially frowns upon using live animals for training, this method is still used. In 2011, a Texas greyhound trainer named Timothy Norbert Titsworth was caught on video using live rabbits to bait greyhounds. Titsworth, who surrendered his license, was initially charged with cruelty to animals, but his case was later dismissed.

Help and Hope

Reputable adoption groups try to save as many retired greyhounds as they can, doing their very best to place them in caring homes. At individual tracks all over the country, the moment that racing season is over, hundreds of dogs at a time are immediately in need of placement. Although adoption helps, the only way to end greyhound abuse is to put an end to racing.

The greyhound-racing industry is slowly dying as awareness of its cruelty grows and because of competition from casinos and poker rooms. There is a marked lack of interest from younger gamblers, who are looking for games with faster action, such as jai alai in Florida, in which bets are placed on human competitors.

Between 2001 and 2012, the total amount of money gambled on greyhound races nationwide declined by 66 percent. Some states prop up dog racing with subsidies and requirements that casinos hold live races. Florida is actually losing money on greyhound racing—$42 million in one 18-month period—because regulatory costs exceed revenues.

Dog racing is illegal in 39 states but continues in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Texas, and West Virginia. There are currently 21 dog tracks in those seven states. However, even states that have banned dog racing may still permit off-track or satellite wagering as well as the breeding of dogs used for racing. In an attempt to revive dog racing, some state legislatures and lobbyists are rewriting gambling laws to allow the tracks to install slot machines and video lottery terminals. GREY2K USA Worldwide is lobbying for legislation to put an end to greyhound racing and has compiled an extensive report available online.

What You Can Do

Help educate racing supporters by leafleting at a local track. Even if your state has banned greyhound racing, it probably has breeding kennels that supply dogs to other states.
Write letters to the editors of your local newspapers explaining why it’s vital that we put an end to this cruel “sport.”

Re: say no the animal racing

帖子发表于 : 周日 10月 04, 2015 6:09 pm
admin
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-e ... se-racing/
They weigh more than 1,000 pounds, are supported by ankles the size of a human’s, and are whipped and forced to run around tracks that are often made of hard-packed dirt at speeds of more than 30 miles per hour while carrying people on their backs. Racehorses are the victims of a multibillion-dollar industry that is rife with drug abuse, injuries, and race fixing, and many horses’ careers end at the slaughterhouse.


Racing to the Grave

Horses begin training or are already racing when their skeletal systems are still growing and are unprepared to handle the pressures of competition racing on a hard track at high speeds. One study on injuries at racetracks concluded that one horse in every 22 races suffered an injury that prevented him or her from finishing a race, while another estimated that 3 thoroughbreds die every day in North America because of catastrophic injuries during races.


Strained tendons or hairline fractures can be tough for veterinarians to diagnose, and the damage may go from minor to irreversible at the next race or workout. Horses do not handle surgery well, and many are euthanized or sold at auction to save the owners further veterinary fees and other expenses for horses who can’t race again.

When popular racehorse Barbaro suffered a shattered ankle at the beginning of the 2006 Preakness, his owners spared no expense for his medical needs, but as The New York Times reported, “[M]any in the business have noted that had Barbaro not been the winner of the Kentucky Derby, he might have been destroyed after being injured.”

Drugs and Deception

Trainers and veterinarians keep injured horses racing when they should be recovering by giving them a variety of legal drugs to mask pain and control inflammation. This leads to breakdowns because horses are able to run when, without the drugs, the pain would otherwise prevent them from trying.

Illegal drugs are also widely used. “There are trainers pumping horses full of illegal drugs every day,” says a former Churchill Downs public relations director. “With so much money on the line, people will do anything to make their horses run faster.” One trainer was suspended for using a drug similar to Ecstasy in five horses, and another has been kicked off racetracks for using clenbuterol and, in one case, for having the leg of a euthanized horse cut off “for research.” A New York veterinarian and a trainer faced felony charges when the body of a missing racehorse turned up at a farm and authorities determined that her death had been caused by the injection of a “performance-enhancing drug.”

Even the ‘Winners’ Lose

When they stop winning races or become injured, few racehorses are retired to pastures, because owners don’t want to pay for a horse who doesn’t bring in any money. Many end up in slaughterhouses in Canada, Mexico, or Japan, where they are turned into dog food and glue. Their flesh is also exported to countries such as France and Japan, where it is considered a delicacy.


Most horses who are sent to those facilities endure days of transport in cramped trailers where there is no access to water or food and injuries are common. Horses are subject to the same slaughter method as cows, but since horses are generally not accustomed to being herded, once together, they tend to thrash about in order to avoid being shot by the captive-bolt gun, which is supposed to render them unconscious before their throats are cut.

What You Can Do

Help end the cruelty:

As long as the suffering continues, refuse to patronize existing tracks and lobby against the construction of new tracks.
Support PETA’s efforts to ensure that racing regulations are reformed and enforced. While horse racing can never be entirely safe for the animals, a zero-tolerance drug policy, turf (grass) tracks only, a ban on whipping, competitive racing only after their third birthdays, and other reforms would make a world of difference to the horses.