When people go to a dog track, they see dogs chasing a lure, much as they have seen their own dogs at home chase a cat or a squirrel. Dogs love to run, they think; dogs love to chase. Where's the harm?

The public never gets to see the reality of a racing greyhound's life. Offers are not made to give guided tours of breeding farms, and for very good reason. The greyhound racing industry would like to promote the image of healthy dogs frisking about a trainer, of people devoted to the welfare of their animals, of a "sport" that simply allows animals to do what they want to do naturally. The reality behind the image is cruel and exploitive.

Here are some hard facts the racing industry doesn't want you to know:

Overbreeding: Bred to be Dead

.....Greyhounds have large litters; nine or ten puppies is not unusual. In the 12 years from 1989 to 2000 the National Greyhound Association registered 77,852 litters, or (using a conservative estimate of 6.5 puppies per litter) 507,596 greyhounds. Only a small percentage of those puppies are likely to win any cash at the track. Experienced breeders can identify the sure losers at a glance, and such puppies are the first to be killed.

.....The rest begin training at six months. They generally begin racing at 18 months of age, entering four races to see if they are fast enough to race for money. Then the second round of killing happens. Greyhound puppies or very young adults rarely are rescued by adoption groups.

.....Greyhounds are litter registered (tattooed) by three months of age and individually registered at 18 months. Of the 507,596 born in 1989-2000, only 395,545 were individually registered. That means that roughly 22 percent disappeared before they reached the track.

Life at the Track

.....Breeding farms are located in every state, and most of the legal owners of racing greyhounds do not see much of their dogs. Some never see them at all. Usually an owner will lease his dogs to a kennel operator, who will ship them to tracks all over the country, moving them around among the 15 states that still allow live racing. Greyhound racing is an interstate shell game: dogs that fail to win at a top (Class A) track are moved to a lesser track and perhaps to a lesser one after that, and so on until they fail to win at all, at which point they are killed or adopted.

.....While racing at a particular track, the dogs are kept in kennels at the track or nearby. They are confined in crates stacked in tiers, each just large enough for a dog to stand or lie down. Bedding generally consists of shredded newspapers or carpet scraps. Rescued greyhounds often have open sores, the result of constant rubbing against the wire mesh of their crates.

.....The dogs are taken out a few times a day for training and to relieve themselves. Otherwise they are locked in the crates for 20 hours or more a day. They wear rigid plastic or metal muzzles whenever they are out of their crates. They race only once every four days. Racing greyhounds are generally fed raw "4-D" meat deemed unfit for human consumption, taken from animals that are diseased, injured or dying between transit and slaughter.

Health

.....Because of the large numbers of dogs confined in a small area and the constant turnover, parasite infestation is inevitable. Greyhounds are often heavily infested with fleas, ticks and internal parasites, especially tapeworms, hookworms and whipworms. Many adopted greyhounds must be wormed repeatedly long after they have left the track. Contagious diseases are also a constant risk as a result of the large numbers of dogs kept in such close quarters. For example, in 1999 a kennel cough and associated streptococcal toxic shock epidemic caused a nationwide quarantine; nearly 100 greyhounds are known to have died over the last decade due to sporadic outbreaks of these diseases. Crowded conditions can lead to catastrophic accidents: in 1992 a kennel fire killed 87 dogs in a private kennel compound located in Lynn, Massachusetts, "home" to racers for Wonderland Greyhound Park. A repeat fire in the same kennel in 1999 killed another 8.

.....Injuries on the track are common, and veterinary care is often cursory, many times limited to the barest first aid, since many of those dogs will not race again. The legs of many retired greyhounds testify to hasty and careless setting of fractures at the track. It is not unheard of for adoption kennels to receive dogs whose fractures have been left untreated for weeks. However, these greyhounds must be considered "lucky," since at least they were not killed immediately. It is important to remember that the economics of dog racing require that if a greyhound cannot "earn his keep" his place in the kennel must be taken by another money-making racer. There is a constant turnover.

.....Only a few states require tracks to file injury reports that can be accessed through public records requests, and because the formats of the reports vary it is difficult to compare states. Here are some of the numbers for 2001, according to records obtained by Greyhound Network News under public records requests:

.....In Texas, a total of 728 greyhounds were injured at the state's three tracks during the 9 1/2-month racing season of 2000-2001. Two dogs were euthanized at the track. Six more sustained "catastrophic" injuries and were probably euthanized. In all, 278 dogs suffered major injuries, many of which were "career ending."

.....In West Virginia between October 2000 and May 2001, 664 dogs were injured at the state's two tracks. Of these, 111 suffered bone fractures; four dogs were euthanized due to injuries, three dogs suffered seizures and two dogs died following a race (cause unlisted). The disposition of the severely injured dogs is unknown.

.....During the seven-month racing season in Wisconsin, the following injuries were reported. (These include injuries suffered at the state's three tracks, plus those recorded during training and schooling races): Total injuries 322; serious injuries 84 (82 bone fractures and two spinal injuries). The disposition of the seriously injured dogs is unknown.

.....Because of their particular body type (lack of body fat, thin coat and large muscle mass), greyhounds are keenly sensitive to heat and cold. Racing in summer heat and humidity can be especially dangerous, and heat stroke in racing greyhounds is a well-documented occurrence. Heat stroke is a life-threatening emergency that often leads to death without aggressive medical treatment. This treatment is often not available or "cost effective" for stricken greyhounds.

"I had not thought death had undone so many." (Dante)

....The racing industry operates on the assumption that most of the dogs it produces will be killed. Industry representatives like to use the term "euthanized," but euthanasia properly means the mercy-killing of an individual already dying and suffering unbearable pain. Except when applied to injured dogs, "euthanasia" in the racing world means something quite different: the deliberate killing of healthy greyhounds -- many two years old or younger -- in order to maximize profit.

.....No one knows exactly how many dogs are put down by industry veterinarians because most states are not required to keep disposition records. Some numbers are available. In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for example, more than 1,200 racing dogs were killed at a local shelter from 1987 to 1992. Mainly the evidence is in the larger numbers: about 20,000 greyhounds a year simply disappear. They are not racing, they are not adopted; they are nowhere.

.....There have been discoveries of whole kennels full of dogs left to starve to death as well as corpses of greyhounds taken out into the desert and shot, their tattooed ears removed to prevent identification. Hundreds of greyhounds are sold to laboratories every year for medical experiments; they are considered desirable because their gentle dispositions make them tractable under stress. Over three years, the Colorado State University School of Veterinary Medicine killed more than 2,600 greyhounds, using them for surgical demonstration. (Rocky Mountain News) At the University of Illinois, greyhounds were poisoned and clinicians stood by and watched as dogs suffered "marked hypothermia, restlessness, panting, vomiting, signs of abdominal pain and seizures." (National Library of Medicine)

.....The law requires that the legal owner of a dog must consent before a dog is sold for medical experiments, but since legal owners of greyhounds often have no contact with their dogs, unscrupulous dealers have found it easy to circumvent the law. The incentive to do so is compelling: A destroyed dog is worth nothing, but a dog sold under the counter to a medical school is worth up to $500.

.....The traffic is by no means all illegal. A number of greyhounds have been donated to universities over the years. Institutions receiving them in recent years have included Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Mississippi State University, Auburn (Alabama) University, and Kansas State University.

Adoption: The Good News, the Bad News

.....There are more than 150 privately funded adoption organizations across the country. Run by volunteers and funded by donations, they rescue and place 12,000-13,000 greyhounds a year. Not only do they save greyhound lives, they create thousands of anti-racing activists, for people who adopt one or two greyhounds turn into people who want to save them all. Greyhounds are their own best advocates. Just walking the streets of their own towns, these gentle, elegant dogs turn heads and raise the pity and indignation of passers-by.

.....In 1987 the racing industry, in an attempt to improve its public image, set up the American Greyhound Council. The AGC finances a toll-free adoption inquiry number and provides stipends to selected adoption programs. This gives the industry some cover and damage control, since financing is only provided to groups that contractually agree to promote a positive image of dog racing. So, in general, the adoption movement is a two-edged sword, since it both promotes anti-racing sentiment and provides the industry with a facade of seemingly benign and responsible behavior. A list of nationwide adoption groups is available through GREYK USA.

Tracks Leading Downhill

.....The racing industry's best year was 1991, when fans bet a total of $3.4 billion on the dogs. Since then there has been a precipitious decline. Sixteen tracks have either closed or ended live racing, though three of those continue simulcasting (closed-circuit TV broadcasts of races at other tracks).

.....State revenues from pari-mutuel dog racing declined significantly from 1990-1998 (the latest figures available). Some examples: Kansas, down 59%; Arizona, down 68%; Massachusetts, down 69%; Oregon, down 70%; Florida, down 71%; Connecticut, down 79%; New Hampshire, down 84%. Seven states banned live and/or simulcast greyhound racing from 1993-2001. They are: Maine, Virginia, Vermont, Idaho, Washington, Nevada and North Carolina. Only 15 states still allow live greyhound racing.

.....Based on recently published reports (August 2001), the dog racing industry continues to decline dramatically. According to gaming industry statistics, dog racing held only a 0.7% share of the entire U.S. gambling market in 2000, a decline of 6.65% from 1999.

.....There are 46 surviving tracks in the United States. Their owners are tenacious and politically powerful, contributing large amounts of money to campaigns and holding the threat of loss of state revenue and jobs over the heads of politicians. They will keep on breeding, racing and killing greyhounds for some time yet. The best weapon greyhound advocates have against them is education: telling the truth about the reality of life -- and death -- at the track.