Interstate Greyhound Racing Act...........

 

I would like to reflect on not just recent years but many years of asking how we got to the point where greyhound racing is on the verge of ending its long history of providing a live racing product in the United States. There are those who think Florida Amendment 13 will be overturned or that a magic wand will be waved and racing in states that long ago ended live greyhound racing will return. Do they fully understand the history with regards to protecting the live greyhound racing product?

Many years ago, a shiny new toy appeared in the pari-mutuel world called off-track betting (OTB). This product scared many - participants and tracks alike - thinking that it might end live racing. The horsemen saw this and in 1978 worked to pass the Interstate Horseracing Act (IHA). Without going into details here (so feel free to research this and expand your mind) this legislation gave protections to the horseman and the live horse racing product.

Greyhound men and women would have been wise to ride the coat tails of the IHA. Why didn't they? Perhaps their attention was elsewhere. Also, in 1978, a segment on the show '20/20' made the nation aware of an activity that many found gruesome and disgusting - the training of greyhounds with live bait also known as jacking.

In the late 80s/early 90’s, an attempt was made to pass a bill called the Interstate Greyhound Racing Act. the bill's language was much like that in the IHA and would have given the greyhound men and women ownership and a say regarding the import and export of the simulcasting signals as well as more of the revenue generated from said signals. At the time it was estimated that little over half those involved in greyhound racing made enough from racing to pay their bills. Greyhound racing was on verge of a financial collapse.

Shortly thereafter came the next revenue generator racinos (casino style gambling facilities at the tracks), with the hope to prop up those struggling. Unfortunately for the greyhound racing industry, many became greedy with the amount of money that would be paid out in the points system. With the desire to be the top kennel, which would be a natural reaction, so came the need for the fastest, most aggressive, most driven greyhounds possible to win. There are many who feel one of the only ways to do this is live bait training and as we recently found out this year, the greyhound industry has never given up its use of live bait training of greyhounds, regardless of what guidelines are stated by the National Greyhound Association.

 

Could greed be the reason be that aggressive greyhounds were/are needed to compete for the big points systems offered by the racinos? Greed can run rampant. Greed can replace all logical thinking.  Tired of funding that greed, the tracks felt paying out money generated by the casinos did not make practical business sense. It is next to impossible to believe that no one, especially on the track side knew about the practices of live bait training greyhounds and likely wanted to start looking for ways to maintain a business all the while distancing themselves from direct involvement in the live racing model. Enter decoupling. Without the Interstate Greyhound Racing Act, the decoupling movement was easy.

Who killed the live greyhound racing product? The industry itself did by not cleaning up its act, thus preventing the ability to find enough support legislatively to pass live greyhound racing product protection bills.

Greyhound Pets of America (GPA), a nationwide greyhound adoption program, had many founding members involved with greyhound racing. In preparations for this blog, I spoke with many old timers from the industry and each has stated that everyone knew the practice of jacking was ongoing even after being exposed by Geraldo Rivera in the premier episode of 20/20, thus prompting me to wonder if that is why the founders set GPA up as a neutral organization, so that GPA and its chapters would not get caught up in any future racing related scandals? I wonder if Greyhound Pets of America membership needs to ask themselves if it is worth GPA's integrity and ability to do what is best for the greyhounds in adoption or is it more important to support greyhound racing at any cost, even the risk of an eventual scandal that will ruin the reputation of the largest nationwide greyhound adoption program? The time has come for those in greyhound adoption to agree to a greyhound adoption integrity act and to maintain or move back to the neutral position regarding greyhound racing and focus not on protecting racing but instead focus on the integrity of greyhound adoptions.

 

Authors Note:

No such bill or movement called the "greyhound adoption integrity act" currently exists. It is simply a concept I personally believe the greyhound adoption community should move back towards. 

In preparation for the writing of this blog, I have watched all the videos (hours’ worth) that I am aware of regarding the recent live bait jacking scandal and find much of it is so disturbing and gruesome that I feel it is best not to share the slaughter as it will no doubt make many sick and even worse, change the views of some regarding the greyhound.

 

Greyhound Racing – Still jackin' it in KS & OK?

 

During the summer, stories about live lure baiting of racing greyhounds broke throughout the United States.  I have personally seen video footage that captured several National Greyhound Association members participating in what many deem to be nothing but brutality and animal abuse. I know some people have no issues with hunting or letting dogs chase prey, but when jackrabbits are not even given an opportunity to outrun and escape, pure brutality is all I can think of when I watch the videos. Who decides which animals can get ripped apart and which animals cannot?

I wanted to learn more. I was not about to just take one organization's word or truncated news stories as gospel. I wanted a thorough and unbiased education about live lure baiting in the greyhound racing industry.

I contacted several retired greyhound breeders, trainers, and owners and set out to discuss with them about this thing that is termed as “jacking”. I asked if “jacking” was indeed a widespread practice years ago, I heard an overwhelming yes. I was told  "we all did it and when that Geraldo Rivera story broke, we all started sending our greyhounds to Kansas and Oklahoma where they would be “jacked” cause after all, it's only a misdemeanor. We did not speak of it; you know plausible deniability. Folks jacking would just tell us if the greyhound would chase or not." 

Personally, I always thought the term "would not chase" meant the greyhound would not chase the lure, but now I understand that it came to mean that a greyhound would not chase a jackrabbit. Lastly was told - "We (greyhound industry) brought the end upon ourselves. We knew what we needed to do to clean up our act, but we all got addicted to the money especially with what the casinos had to offer and just kept doing inhumane activities behind their back and kept getting caught. If we had cleaned up our act, those organizations would have never had anything to nail our coffin with."

Sadly, as of this writing, even though the National Greyhound Association (NGA) has had plenty of time to take a stand, take the lead and permanently divest itself of any and all membership that participates in this tradition of training, it continues to be reactive rather than proactive.

 It is difficult not to wonder who knew the secrets or why this practice continues.  Could “it's against the rules” and "we will kick anyone out caught doing so" just be pat responses to keep the public at bay? Do not greyhound owners always know what is going on with their dogs?

Perhaps the NGA has buried its head in sand. 

I have not.