Since we have some new members, maybe we could get some new volunteers.

Here is Judi's original post from the old board.

I'm still rattling around, trying to get real numbers on greyhound adoption. I am not giving up on NGA buy-in, but all I seem to do is scare them - so I am leaving that end up to some capable individuals who are well-known to the racing industry. I (and you) can make the greatest impact now by contacting every adoption agency we can find and doing whatever we need to do to help them begin to use Greyhound-Data. Anja van Boehn is responsible for that section of the database and she has never had much luck with getting the various U. S. adoption entities on-board. Let's change that!


Hi Judi,


Gunnar has asked me to answer your email, as I'm the one in charge for
the Adoption groups on our website.

If you would help me to contact the groups and ask them to list their
dogs on our website, this would be fantastic!
I made several attempts to do so, but unfortunately, didn't get much
response to this.

I think with your experience and your contacts to the groups, you are
the perfect person for this!

You can see which US groups have already joined here:
http://www.greyhound-data.com/adoption.htm...ry=4&order=name

Many of them have no dogs listed at all, or haven't updated anything
since years.

This is a pitty, it really doesn't cost much time for each group to add
their dogs. Most of them are already in the database and they just need
a few pictures uploaded and a "click" to make them appear in the list.


The system brings 2 benefits:

A) Free advertisement for the dogs and the groups
It allows to trace what has happened to a dog after he stopped
racing: Is he with a group waiting for a home, has he found a family or
did he "disappear"?

Of course, is only of value if every group enters every greyhound
that they get in, which is sadly not the case yet.

Maybe you can convince the groups to join and regularly update their
records?

I could create a list of names and email addresses of the volunteers who
are listed as responible for each group, if this helps you.

I'm looking forward to hear from you soon :-)


Kind regards
Anja



Tara has volunteered to assist with coordinating this effort and I stuck her with Canada as well, so who wants to be the official "Greyhound Pest" for the following areas??

NorthEast U.S. - Connecticutt, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
Pennsylvania, Vermont

South U. S. - Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisianna, Maryland,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tenessee, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia,
West Virginia

MidWest U. S. - Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North
Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin

West U. S. - Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah,
Washington, Wyoming

These four divisions come directly from the U. S. Census bureau and since I paid big bucks (tax wise) for people to think them up, by golly I'm going to use them! Those nice folks at the Census Bureau do have these regions split down at least one more time and as we get more volunteers, we will split into the smaller regions (if you volunteer to be a Grand-Pooba Pest of say the NorthEast, you will, in time, become merely the Grand Pooba Pest of the Mid-Atlantic, and then perhaps Pennsylvania...) But for now, there is great power to be given out - who will step forward to be dubbed a regional pest of greyhounds?

Once we establish a core of pesky people, the next task will be to come up with a standard e-mail to use for the initial contact - Anja and Tara have been working on that one - stay tuned for details...

Any updates? I have been searching groups that I had no info on and sending out the email.

We still could use some more volunteers.

Well I did bring this up to Kimberly's attention at Project Racing Home but since I don't live down there I don't have access to the information. If I did I would be more then happy to help her get all the dogs listed and keep it updated.

One other problem is the links to go from Greyhound-Data to the Adoption Groups web page do not work. I did email Greyhound-Data but it has not been corrected.

Is there anything I can do to help?

Bobbi

GPA and NGA are not supporting this database idea so everyone might as well save their time.

Greyhound Data is international - I don't know why you would think that it needs the support of GPA or NGA in order to track hounds. I've never heard Rory make any statements along the line that you suggest... I'm just a little adoption worker, so I don't have any contacts at NGA and can't remark on their feelings toward GHD. As far as I know, Gunnar is friendly with both groups, but has never required anything from them... of course I'm just a worker bee. Regardless, your statement confuses me.

Beyond all that - I haven't had any luck getting ahold of Anja lately - I'm thinking of going over to her board and tracking her down... has anyone else heard from her? The first note went out in April - so an update should go out in July. It would be nice to have a query run against the data and find out how much adoption info has been updated since the last note went out. I suppose I need to go over to the GHD forums... Tara, is that how you found out that she's had the baby? (Of course, school is back in session tomorrow, so I am frantically trying to get ready today.)

Judi, I emailed her the other day but no reply. I guess she is busy with the new baby.

Yup Judi. Gunnar posted an very short thread in the talk section. I know I have tried a few times as well and got no response. I think they are really busy gathering data, making the sight even more user friendly and just life in general (kind of like the rest of us) I guess the best idea is to just keep trying to contact her ... eventually the neww addition will have to sleep right LOL.
FFR how do you know this about GPA and NGA ... please stop spouting and give us concrete, verifiable facts about the info you know ... so if it is true we can WORK THE PROBLEM.
Tara

Tara~

From everything I've read, GPA has never said they do not support the database. The only public statement that the president of GPA has made regarding the database, is that unless the database is done correctly, is correct and that that it is able to be validated as accurate, it would not be worth supporting. Nothing wrong with that! I happen to know that Rory is an expert in internet/data security in his real life and he is not going to let something that would not be secure or validated slip through the cracks as the gospel of greyhounds. I'm sure we all feel that way.

Can't say I've seen any public statement from the NGA regarding the database.

I occasionally attend ADOR meetings and do understand that the President of GPA will be soon making a presentation to the industry regarding micro chips vs. tattoos. This is an item he has on his plate as part of the database build up. So to say GPA doesn’t support this when the President is busy working on tasks to set the tone for such a database is either a fabrication of hatred, or the mind of the unknowing.

Kathy

I'm not sure I understand what would make this database unverifiable. Anyone can validate the accuracy by checking with the dog's original owner.

Kathy, is there a way for us non-industry people to hear more about Rory's idea for a database?

Jenna

I am also interested in hearing more details about what needs to be addressed. I'm aware of the problem involved with gathering data on puppies who never race... are there others?

I recently took on the job of updating our adoption groups site on Greyhound Data. (Friends of Greyhounds, Ft Lauderdale) They have actually made it very user friendly. Given the right info, ear marks/tattoos, DOB etc on the hounds it takes in, it does't take long to update, add pics or mark as adopted each hound that is brought in. I hope that other adoption centers will take advantage of this. The only problem I've had is getting a response from them re: question I had. Now that I understand a new baby is involved, I will wait patientlly and try my query again soon. Our group recently had our 500th adoption. Yea us!

Messages like yours are what helps the most. Thanks for posting and congratulations on your group's 500th adoption!

Jenna

What a great idea!

-Shalea

Hey Shalea, who at PRH handles all the new info on new dogs that come in. I would be more then happy to take the time to enter all the info but I live up here in Va. Beach and don't have access to anything. I wonder if anyone down there would be willing to e-mail the list and just send me all the new info as the dog come in?
Bobbi

Hey Bobbi, Kimberly does pretty much all of it herself, although Millie helps with certain aspects. Email Kimberly and see if she can just email you the list once a month to update GHD.

If anyone knows of a group who needs manpower to update GHD (not enough voluteers or time ect.) I am willing to help them keep GHD up to date. They can just e-mail the info and I will up date it for them.
thanks Tara

What is up with this. What are our next steps?

There is another aspect to this that many people might not know about. I know of many kennels that run dogs of owners that want their dogs put down after racing and the kennels adopt them out anyways. This happens enough that I think a paper trail is not a good idea. Always remember that it is the dog owners right to have the dogs put down and most kennels are hands on, one on one with the dogs and they just put the dogs in adoption anyways and tell the owners that they put them down.

When the NGA came out with blueslips there was alot of calls made by owners to kennels that got "caught" adopting out dogs that were supposed to be put down.

RacyzMom - If you don't hear from Anja within a week, you've probably been patient enough. If you want to send me the questions - I can forward them on for you. Anja is just treading water at this point - not starting anything new - but she is solving issues as they arise. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

NGA and their 90% are a joke.

Every kennel that runs a 80 dog kennel needs at least 40 new dogs every year to even come close to staying competitive, and believe me, that is the bare minimum of new dogs. Most kennels go through alot more than that.

Look at Melbourne- they had 6, 80 dog kennels there and when they closed, at the half way point of the year, Dennis had petted out 225 dogs. Were they a 100% adoption track? Nope.

At SOKC there's 16, 80 dog kennels. If every kennel did just the bare minimum, that would be 640 pets- between all the groups there, I think there was about 500 petted out- that was more than ever before but not even close enough to where the numbers should be.

The NGA should be ashamed of themselves for thinking that they can try to pull the wool over everyones eyes. Some of us are usually quiet and grabbing all the dogs that we can, but on this crap, I won't.

NGA is a registry and they don't get money in if everyones breeding less dogs. They hand out a small amount of money in grants through the AGC, every single bit of money that comes in through the blueslip program should go right back into adoption and it doesn't. Pet people do all the dirtywork for nothing, out of they're love for the dogs. NGA takes money from the blueslips to make up for less breedings and hands out a small percentage to pet groups to try to make themselves look good.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

QUOTE (prefontaine @ Jun 23 2007, 10:41 AM)

Hey Bobbi, Kimberly does pretty much all of it herself, although Millie helps with certain aspects.  Email Kimberly and see if she can just email you the list once a month to update GHD.