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Articles Fire kills 70 greyhounds From the Post Gazette
www.post-gazette.com : Greyhound rescue group takes 16 dogs before kennel fire 16 dogs taken
from W.Va. kennel hours before fire killed 70 Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Jeanne Megrey, foster coordinator of Going Home Greyhounds, hugs Endless
Night, a greyhound taken by the group at the last minute Sunday morning
because ZEZ Kennels in Brooke County, W.Va., was out of her medication. Click photo for larger image. Firefighters were unable to save more than 70 racing greyhounds when
flames and smoke engulfed a trailer at ZEZ Kennels Inc. in Brooke County,
W.Va., Sunday night. But a group of Pittsburgh area volunteers had "rescued"
16 greyhounds about 12 hours before the fire started. "Firefighters said the dogs were silent" when they arrived on the scene
at about 9:45 p.m. "The dogs didn't have a chance," said Brooke County
Sheriff Rich Ferguson. Three volunteer companies extinguished the fire in a
converted trailer filled with cages in about an hour, but all of the dogs
inside died Brooke County deputies are investigating the cause of the fire and have
called in the state fire marshal and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives. Deputies were checking the identification tattoos in the ears of the dead
racing dogs yesterday in an effort to trace the owners. Volunteers from Going Home Greyhounds had loaded 16 dogs whose racing
careers were over into five cars Sunday morning and driven them to the
Tender Touch Veterinary Hospital in Pine, where they were checked by
veterinarian Kelly Hopper. All will be neutered and inoculated and will
spend at least three weeks in the homes of volunteers before becoming
available to be adopted as pets. "Rescue" is the term that Going Home Greyhounds and similar nonprofit
groups use to describe their mission. They rescue greyhounds that are too
old or too slow to race and find them new homes as pets of families and
individuals. In the past year, Going Home Greyhounds has found new homes for 200
racing dogs retired from ZEZ Kennels. In the past 10 years, the group has
rescued more than 1,000 greyhounds from various tracks and kennels. "We only had foster homes for 12 dogs, but we made room for three more,"
said Jeanne Megrey, one of the volunteers. "At the last minute, the kennel manager asked if we could [also] take a
5-year-old black dog who had an ear ailment. They were out of her
medication." Volunteer Elaine Pensenstadler said she would take that dog, named
Endless Night, to her Ambridge home. The Sunday night fire apparently started near a propane furnace, Sheriff
Ferguson said. The fire did not spread to a nearby kennel building, which
was made from concrete blocks, and more than 70 dogs in that building were
fine. ZEZ owner Edward Zeroski, who trains dogs owned by people who live all
over the country, was not at the kennel Sunday night, and law enforcement
officials were not able to talk to him yesterday afternoon. Reportedly, he
had been working at a racing kennel in Florida and was traveling back to
West Virginia. The kennel is on Girty's Point Road in Brooke County, north of Wheeling
Island Racetrack & Gaming Center. Sheriff Ferguson said federal officials were called in because the damage
estimate for the fire is expected to be high and dogs had died at Mr.
Zeroski's kennel several years ago. On July 27, 2000, more than 50 dogs died when an air conditioning unit
malfunctioned. "Basically they died of heat exhaustion," said attorney Anthony I. Werner
of Wheeling, W.Va. He represented a Kansas couple who owned 14 of the dogs
that died. The couple sued ZEZ, the Wheeling racetrack and Burlington
Insurance Co., and were awarded $1 million by an Ohio County, W.Va., jury.
(Linda Wilson Fuoco can be reached at
[email protected] or
412-263-3064.) Fair Use Notice: This document may contain
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