Voss: What I Learned From Writing About Greyhound Racing

There are lots of times that I'm relieved not to be a radio or television reporter, for all kinds of reasons.

It's an awkward thing, having to approach someone and say, essentially, “How does it feel to watch your job disappear?” But that was the assignment I'd dealt myself when I set out to research Greyhound racing for the piece we published this week examining what horse racing should learn from dog racing. In my current role, I could at least call them instead of having to walk up to a stranger and shove a microphone in their face.

I learned that different people have different adjectives for what's happened in Greyhound racing. Most people sounded resigned, defeated, frustrated. Many of them will readily say it's dead or disappearing, or “not what it used to be.” One owner/breeder pushed back against the notion the sport is “dying” since handle is strong in his base of West Virginia, but he has no delusions that the industry hasn't shrunk. Even the legacies – people who were carrying on second and third-generation family businesses, like so many of the big owners and breeders in Thoroughbred racing do – were not immune to the economic squeeze as tracks closed one by one, he told me.

Greyhound people are wary of the media, and I can't say I blame them. They feel animal rights groups have controlled the narrative about their sport, and that they've twisted things around. But the people I spoke with were patient with my elementary questions, and seemed sincere in their hope I would understand their story.

When I started the project, I'd hoped to find that their wounds may have been totally self-inflicted or preventable. Without knowing much about them, I imagined they may have made some obvious errors along the way that horse racing wouldn't risk. It's true that some of the narratives seized by the animal rights groups had some historical basis – aftercare was not always pretty, there have been failed drug tests by some dogs, and some on-track injuries can be fatal – but I can't honestly say any of it was more than what we deal with.

In fact, if anything, you could argue that dog racing did a better job of confronting the real issues at the core of its criticisms than we have. Greyhound Pets of America now estimates that 100% of dogs that don't retire to breeding careers find adoptive homes, because the breed has such a good reputation as a family dog anyone would like to have. Thoroughbred racing has made progress but has never been able to boast that, and I'm not sure it ever will. Dog aftercare is also viewed differently by racing; Greyhound breeders happily pay to support it, and praise it openly. They love to see people appreciate the animals they breed, and probably recognize that the efforts of adoption groups that are fully funded by the industry make everyone look good. There isn't the attitude many have in horse racing that if the horse is doing something other than breeding after retirement, it's a sign they've failed.

It's easier to house a dog than a horse, and many adopted dogs stay in their retirement homes for the remainder of their lives, while the average horse has as many as seven owners in its lifetime, according to the ASPCA.

Still, when an ex-racehorse ends up in a bad spot, I don't think the average person is thinking about any of that. They're just wondering why our sport didn't take care of it.

Then there are the injuries. I requested fatal injury statistics from West Virginia, only to find they count all on-track injuries to dogs, whether they're fatal or not – a far cry from what horse racing has been able to do logistically so far. Besides that, when you consider dog racing fatality figures, they're a lot lower than ours.

Dog statistics aren't kept the same way as horse fatality numbers, which are calculated per 1,000 starts in order to account for varying field sizes and numbers of races year to year. (One start is one horse starting a race, so a field of ten in a race would represent ten starts.)

As we reported, West Virginia's Mardi Gras Casino and Resort saw one dog euthanized last year over 4,481 racing events. I also acquired the numbers for Florida in 2018, the year voters turned out to ban wagering on dog racing due to concerns about fatalities. The state told me there had been 57 fatal injuries and 39,754 races that year. That works out to 1.43 fatalities per 1,000 races – far, far lower than our current national average of 1.39 fatalities per 1,000 starts.

At the end, it didn't matter. The point was, the public didn't want any animals to die.

What I found most disturbing though, was that even after Greyhound racing got its primary issues under control, the animal rights groups still found plenty to criticize, and those criticisms appealed to the animal-loving public. Even if we got to the ever-elusive zero fatality figure, even if we controlled every horse's exit from racing, our critics would have something to say.

The Greyhound folk I spoke with said many of the current criticisms by animal rights group GREY2K and others are lies, or disingenuous generalizations from dated examples. Horse racing certainly sees the same from time to time. But there are also realities someone could run with if they wanted to. Horses housed on the track really do spend long periods in their stalls, which is known to increase risk of GI ulcers and stress behaviors. They really don't get much chance to socialize, which is mentally challenging for a herd animal. They do suffer non-fatal injuries while racing and working out – recoverable injuries, but injuries nonetheless. And have you ever been on the rail at morning workouts and seen a rider or handler lose their temper with a horse? I have. Not often. I see much more good horsemanship out there than bad. But I'm always grateful not to have to explain the scene to anyone when it does happen.

Is this any different from the life of show horses in other disciplines? Nope. Do I think that will make it play any better with a non-horsey public if exploited by animal rights groups? Nope.

Perhaps, I began hoping, hindsight would have given the Greyhound people some trick for dealing with animal rights groups. It seems they've learned the groups can't be ignored, but they also can't be satisfied. I didn't hear anyone say they resented the changes dog racing made in response to welfare concerns; quite the opposite. They were proud of the results, but disappointed they weren't enough.

The one thing they did stress to combat the animal rights narrative was cooperation. Align with the farm animal industries, the dog folk told me. They're worried, too.

Racing has never been all that great at working with other equine sports, but several of them have begun hearing criticisms about safety and welfare. Every corner of the equestrian world has its demons, no matter what its participants may pretend. None of us is immune to public pressure, none of us is perfect, and none of us is without our bad actors. None of us wants to lose our social license to operate, and all of us are vulnerable.

If we're to survive, we must recognize what our horses, as herd animals, did thousands of years ago – when it comes to lurking predators in the dark, we're stronger together than apart.

The post Voss: What I Learned From Writing About Greyhound Racing appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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