{Take Action Tuesday} Greyhound Racing

It’s the first-ever installment of “Take Action Tuesdays” and after all of the positive feedback I received, I have to believe you all are as excited as I am!  This weeks topic may come as a surprise to you, as it’s not a topic I have ever really discussed here: Greyhound racing.

We all know my passion lies with pit bulls, but despite the fact that greyhounds and pit bulls have polar opposite physiques, they share a trait that links them and therefore makes me passionate about their well-being as well: they are animals suffering at the hands of selfish humans.  (I should hope you all know by now that things like head shape aren’t what I truly care about, and my real passion lies with animal advocacy as a whole; from pit bulls to greyhounds to mice all being of equal importance!)

Image from Google Images

Pit bulls are commonly used for dog fighting, a form of entertainment for low life scum.  Greyhounds are commonly used for dog racing, another form of entertainment for low life scum some people.  Both are also forms of income for said individuals.  At the very core, the issue lies in the fact that many people view animals as property that are on Earth simply to serve us in some manner.  This is an entire post for another day though, and for now we shall focus on the topic at hand.  To say it simply, greyhounds are bred to profit the breeders, then the racers, while living in cruel conditions, all to then ultimately need rescuing–that is if they aren’t killed first.  I will refrain from going into the gory details but you can click here for concise explanations of why greyhound racing is wrong and should be ended.  Should you care to read more, trust me, a simple Google search will give you more details that you would care to have.

Image from Google Images

In Florida, law requires that if you are going to have gambling onsite, you have to have live racing.  Almost always that means dog racing.  This means for anyone that wants to open any sort of gambling venue (usually poker rooms) they have to also bring with it this cruel sport.  Most venues house around 1,000 dogs at any time!  Decoupling the racing from the gambling would mean that racing is no longer required and these gambling facilities could now legally operate without racing. As it stands now, the racing industry is being subsidized by the other gambling. Without this subsidy there would likely be a decrease in racing activity in the sport as it is forced to rely on its own market.  Additionally, at this time Florida and Alabama are the only two states that do not require injuries be reported.  It is proven that by reporting injuries, the number of injuries will decrease.  Perhaps because no one wants to have to admit that what they are doing is actually very dangerous and harmful?  Seems like it to me!

  So, while this is a brief overview that is fairly specific to Florida we can all still get involved!  If you live in Florida, click here and you will be brought to a form that you can personalize and then easily submit to the Senate Gambling Committee.  Session isn’t until March, but now is a good time to act because together we can flood their inboxes with our opinions on this barbaric matter.  Don’t live in Florida?  Click here to visit the Grey2k website (where the map above is from) and you will see a plethora of ways to get involved.  Take Action!

Update!  I quickly learned that this is topic is even more heated than I realized.  I want to be clear about something: I welcome all comments and views, even if they oppose mine, IF they are presented in a respectful manner.  If you bash another person, on either side of this debate, you will be banned.  Period.  This is my blog and while I am fully aware that I frequently write things that people disagree with, I will not tolerate rude or disrespectful behavior.  Additionally, my blog is simply not set up to handle videos in the comments.  It causes it to crash and I have therefore had to delete nearly all of the videos that have been posted.  I am not “hiding” anything, I am simply trying to keep my blog operational.  Thank you.  

Update #2: While I am thrilled to have written a post so that so many people are passionate about, the comments left by a handful of people, who could not respect my requests to keep this space mature and respectful, have gotten completely out of control I have elected to disable any further comments on this post.  Thank you.