In search of speed and profits, the greyhound industry
treats dogs who "run short" (don't win) as undesirable "surplus."
Far from the cheers of the crowd, thousands of
greyhounds who don't finish "in the money" are sold or donated to
schools and laboratories for experimentation, dissection, and surgical
training. These unfortunate victims end up as body parts on dissection
slabs or as the "subjects" of painful experiments.
In the U.S. each year, an estimated 20,000 - 30,000
greyhounds are killed, including thousands of puppies.
Experimentation
Greyhounds are characteristically gentle and undemanding. They seldom
bite, no matter what pain or indignities are inflicted upon them.
Plentiful, convenient, expendable, and good-natured, they are very
desirable to experimenters.
In addition, greyhounds' popularity on the "grey market"
is fueled by vivisectors' claims that a greyhound's pulse and heart size
approximate a human's and that their low body fat ensures that their
organs are readily accessible.
Dissection
With ample availability, greyhounds have been used in classroom
dissections. Students have been shocked to see the slender animals' body
parts lifeless and dissected in front of them - perhaps so resembling
their own companion animal's.
Countless victims
The actual total figures on the use of greyhounds in experiments and
dissection are not available. This is because the USDA reports include
only the label "dog" without breed specifications. Here, though, are
just a few disturbing examples of the numbers involved:
* 2,652 greyhounds used for terminal labs and dissection
at Colorado State University, 214 of whom were donated by MA-licensed
owners and kennel owners. (1995-1998, Rocky Mountain News)
* 600 greyhounds sold to laboratories for medical
research. (1990, Arizona, Phoenix Gazette)
* 595 greyhounds used for research. (1994-1999, Iowa
State University canine acquisition records)
* 100+ greyhounds - including 57 puppies - euthanized.
(January 1996 to May 1998, Kansas State University canine acquisition
records)
* 40 greyhounds illegally donated for medical research
at Mississippi State University (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)
And there are countless others. . .
We CAN stop this!
Public opposition forced the University of California at Davis to
release several of the 56 greyhounds purchased for research in 1989.
(Woodland Democrat)
Animal allies pressured the University of Arizona to
release 12 greyhounds from its lab in 1994 on the grounds that they were
obtained without their owners' permission. (The Arizona Republic)
An adoption agency received six greyhounds from Auburn
University's College of Veterinary Medicine in 1998 after it was
determined that the dogs were purchased from local race tracks without
the owners' permission. Unfortunately, this small victory came after 227
greyhounds were already euthanized in 1997 and 1998. (The Birmingham
News)
Investigation of a state-sanctioned "greyhound adoption
service" in Cedar Rapids, WI, revealed that more than 850 racing dogs
were sold to a cardiac research laboratory without permission of many of
the dogs' owners. The lab agreed to return about 100 of the greyhounds
this year. (Wisconsin State Journal)
How YOU can help!
Massachusetts' greyhounds are not safe from horrible fates as research
and learning "tools" or as dissection "specimens." Since each dog can
fetch as much as $400 from a laboratory, selling "surplus" greyhounds
generates a quick and tidy profit. And donating dogs for such purposes
makes for a quick and tidy disposal.
For more information on ending greyhound racing in
Massachusetts:
Grey2K
P.O. Box 1606
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
(617) 666-3526
www.Grey2K.org
For more educational flyers to distribute:
NEAVS
(617) 523-6020
info@ma.neavs.com
www.neavs.org
To report "missing" greyhounds who may have been sold or
donated to laboratories or schools without their "owners" consent, or
information on how to recover a "missing" dog:
The Greyhound Protection League
1 (800) 446-8637
P.O. Box 669
Penn Valley, CA 95946
www.greyhounds.org
For adoption information or for links to adoption and
assistance sites:
Greyhound Friends, Inc.
167 Saddle Hill Road
Hopkington, MA 10748
(508) 435-5969
www.greyhound.org
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