I hope this is the right place for this. I've been following greyhound racing for over 30 years, love the dogs and the racing and want to see it continue. I have a blog where I post articles about handicapping and also sell my handicapping systems. I recently got a comment from someone who listed a long string of cruelties inflicted on racing greyhounds. From the commenter's tone, I'm sure that he's in favor of banning greyhound racing. I'm not.

I'd like to see the industry clean up its act and treat greyhounds with respect and decency. I'd also like to see supervision of the greyhounds' care and racing from a non-biased outside agency. Does anyone know of any group that's trying to work with the greyhound industry, instead of against it, to improve conditions for greyhounds and come down hard on people who do these cruel things to these dogs? If so, I'd like to put a link on my blog and publicize their work amongst my readers.

I think part of the problem is that the average handicapper doesn't know or think about what happens behind the scenes of a racetrack. They only see the dogs when they race. I worked at kennels years ago in New England and I know that most owners aren't mean and most greyhounds eat well and get to socialize a heck of a lot more than a lot of pets whose owners work or leave them tied out in the yard.

Anyhow, I'd like to do more to advocate for greyhounds without joining PETA or one of the radical animal rights groups that wants to outlaw having animals as pets.

Eb

If you are asking about adoption groups, I don't think they are in the best position to focus on changes needed within the racing industry. Most of them do (I hope) work with the industry to find good homes for the dogs, which one could say is helping to improve conditions for them.

Those, such as your commentor, who appear to be more interested in banning the sport, would only represent a small percentage of adoption people, if in fact, they are involved in adoption at all. Unfortunately for you, a certain number of these people will always exist, just as bad apples exist within the racing industry.

I am not in a postion to speak for my group about placing their link on your web site, however I am sure there are others here who can and would be happy to do so.

On the other hand, if you are looking for another type of group all together, please disregard everything I just said. I would have to give that one some thought but probably won't be able to figure out an answer. Interesting idea though.

Good luck,

Jenna

Welcome to EG. We are always happy to see new people here. Please feel free to join in the discussions.

There may be a lot of groups out there that do not get into the political mix but there are plenty that do. One of the reasons treatment of greyhounds has improved over the last 25 years is because groups and track people alike started the ball rolling. Jenna may be right but she may also be wrong. See for yourself. Why not find a group in your area and see what adoption is all about. Consider attending one of the large greyhound functions. Sany Paws, Greyhounds in Gettysburg, Greyhounds Reach The Beach... You might be pleasantly surprised at just how much the groups do and have done to help change the way greyhounds are treated.

I do agree that joining up with PETA or Grey2K might not be the best idea to get a balanced view of whats being done out there. I occasionally recieve e-mails from these groups. Some of the pictures and incidents that they proffer are things that happened years ago. I hope you find the answers that you're looking for.

Jenna, I'm working on a proposal to send to the state even as we speak. I know this is a lively topic between the two of us. Wish us luck!

Stay tuned Eb, I'm working on a grassroots political group for parimutuel animal rights. It's not AR or PR, it's for responsible racing.

Someone has to start somewhere with this, I thought I would give it a shot.

Thanks, everyone, for your information. I did find the American Greyhound Council and posted a link to it. I'm also looking into joining the NGA as someone on this list suggested.

I wish I could adopt a greyhound, but I have an old Black Lab and she doesn't get along with other dogs. She's strictly a people dog and it wouldn't be fair to her to introduce another dog and disrupt her life. Even after she's gone, I have 3 cats to consider, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. However, there's no reason why I can't get involved in a greyhound adoption group and I don't know why I didn't do it a long time ago. I've gotten so much from greyhounds over the years. I need to give something back.

I'll do that and also make sure that I mention this issue in posts on a regular basis. I can add a tagline to each post to keep it in people's minds. I have a growing readership, some who subscribe and some who come to my site daily, and all of them are fans of greyhound racing, so they should support efforts to help racing greyhounds and the racing business.

I know some groups would rather not be associated with someone who sells handicapping systems and is obviously a gambler, so I won't put any adoption group links on my site unless someone from the group requests it. If there's a link at the track's site, I'll mention it when I write about the track.

And now for something that's been puzzling me. Why are there dragons on a greyhound site?

Eb

Eb Thanks for taking the time to ask the questions! And an even bigger thanks for seeking out the answers. Its hard to know just what impact the adoption groups make on a daily basis toward the betterment of the hounds. We just keep chipping away.

L.

Well, I'm making progress. I joined Greyhound Pets of America and also made a donation. And on their site I found a link to igive.com where anyone can join and pick a cause and shop online or search online to donate money to the cause. I picked Greyhound Pets of America as my cause and put a link to igive.com on my site, along with a link to GPA in my blogroll.

I'm going to donate ten percent of the profit that I make on systems to GPA. It's the least I can do.

Is it permissible to post the igive.com link that lets people join up and pick GPA as their cause? It has nothing to do with me or my site or selling anything. It's just a link to their site with the code for GPA. If not, the link is on my site.

If you already know about all this, I apologize for rehashing it. If not, maybe you could get the word out about igive.com. Everyone searches and most people shop online, so it's not extra effort.

And, by the way, I need to stay away from the photos of greyhounds waiting for adoption. They're so hard to resist, but I can't have one while I have my faithful but not friendly to other dogs Black Lab. I wonder though if so many of the greyhounds are really safe with cats. What if the cat runs even in the house? I have 3 cats and my kids would be devastated if anything happened to them.

Eb

Eb that is great. I have heard of igive.com By the way, what is your link? Maybe you could link EG on there.

We have cats and I have to say, they rule the house and our dogs. Now if they saw a cat outside in our yard, all bets are off.

I like to welcome you too.

Here's the link to igive.com to donate to Greyhound Pets of America.

http://www.igive.com/html/refer.cfm?causeid=28215

I have a neat little widget on my site with a dog on it. It's not technically a greyhound, but I guess it could be taken for one if you squint your eyes.

I'd like to put a link to this site on my site, if that's okay. My url is just http://ebnetr.com. If you'd like to check it out first before I put your link on it, that's fine with me.

Thanks for the welcome and I'm really sorry to hear that The Woodlands is closing. I never thought I'd see the day that would happen. Still, I'm an optimist and everything runs in cycles, so maybe it's not permanent. I hope it isn't.

Eb

EB, first of all, Second, Greyhounds are cat tested to see if they will be compatible with cats. The group I work with has about a 95% adoption rate of greyhounds going into homes with cats. And all has worked out very well. I just wish we could find more homes for the cat zappers!

Keep up the good work!

Feel free to add EG link to your site.

www.everythinggreyhound.net