History of the Greyhound
No one knows exactly when greyhounds came into the lives of humans. Sometime after the retreat of the last glaciers people discovered the advantages of dogs as hunting partners: fast, agile, strong dogs who could run down prey that left clumsy humans far behind.
Through subsequent millennia humans kept these useful dogs close to them, and learned to breed them selectively, developing a lean, graceful, swift dog of a sighthound type. Such dogs were bred in North Africa and Asia several thousand years ago and were probably the forebears of modern greyhounds and Salukis.
Greyhounds Today
After activists began to publicize the abuses of the greyhound racing industry in the early 1990s, state legislatures came under increasing public pressure to end greyhound racing. Eight states have done so, but there are still 32 greyhound tracks operating in 11 states. (In the remaining states, greyhound racing either has never been established or tracks have closed.)
As a breed, greyhounds are gentle and affectionate. Remarkably calm in temperament, they are nevertheless sensitive to the least physical or emotional discomfort. They seem heartbreakingly vulnerable to the brutal conditions in which they are raised and raced. Adopted greyhounds are ideal companions for the elderly, and many become therapy dogs in nursing homes.