April is Greyhound Adoption Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Those of us in the greyhound community know that April is Greyhound Adoption Month, but many may not realize April is also Child Abuse Prevention Month (in addition to Sexual Assault Awareness Month).

Wouldn’t it be nice if along with showcasing our greyhounds we also stood up and rid our greyhound community of a convicted child molester with lifetime sex offender registration that lurks amongst us?

This individual who is looked upon by some as a person of importance and influence was arrested for molesting children ages 5 and 7, making them eat candy off his penis and doing things that caused vaginal bleeding.

The individual who did this to innocent children now calls the crimes rumor and innuendo in an effort to continue to run family friendly greyhound events. Many know the truth and have vowed never to attend any event he runs/charges registration fees for. It astounds me that the individual has supporters who parrot the lies. Is it for the donations and perks the individual offers the supporters? Do the supporters see nothing wrong with a convicted child molester with lifetime sex offender registration in close proximity to children?

I feel the time has come for all events to state if they are associated with or have zero association with the individual and if the the individual will or will not be at the event festivities. Why does a faction of the greyhound community turn a blind eye? Sadly, often time’s society fails to support the survivors and instead defend the abusers and minimize their actions.

I would hope that during this month the greyhound community stands up and demand that the actions of this individual are no longer trivialized or justified and insist the individual step away from greyhound related activities. We need to show those in our community, potential adopters and the towns that welcome greyhound events and attendees that we do not condone such actions against children and will do what is needed to provide safe, friendly events for our greyhound community.

The following excerpt is from “Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, & Other Sex Offenders” by Anna Salter Ph.D. from interviews with convicted molesters & rapists on how predators groom a family:

“When a person like myself wants to obtain access to a child, you don’t just go up and get the child and sexually molest the child. There’s a process of obtaining the child’s friendship and, in my case also obtaining the family’s friendship and their trust. When you get their trust, that’s when the child becomes vulnerable and you can molest the child…”

Think about this - a person claims to be donating money & time to greyhound adoption, galgo adoption, dog hauls and running family friendly greyhound events could be someone that many would easily fall prey to because many falsely equate working with greyhounds as a saintly calling and could view an individual as important, as trustworthy, as a good person then...bam...the unthinkable could happen.

As we take the month of April to showcase the joy of greyhound adoption let us also show solidarity against child abuse. Let’s say goodbye to the one who is trying so desperately to build up trust with our families but is not facing the truth.