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Demand is high for homeless greyhounds
By Joe Potente, Kenosha News - 3/6/10

An unprecedented wave of demand for greyhound adoptions came with the closing of Dairyland Greyhound Park.

It’s a case of a potentially bad event having an unexpectedly good ending, adoption group representatives say.

Ellen Paulus, president of the Wisconsin chapter of Greyhound Pets of America, said her group was processing 60 to 80 applications from prospective adoptees this week. The norm for this time of the year is about 10, she said.

With all but a few of Dairyland’s dogs adopted out or sent on to other racetracks, Paulus said her group is now bringing dogs up to Wisconsin from Florida and Alabama to meet the demand for adoptions.

“It’s a good problem,” Paulus said. “We’re going to ride this wave of greyhound adoptions as long as we can.”

Sue Gaiser, vice president of Illinois-based Greyhounds Only, a non-profit adoption group, said the process of finding homes for Dairyland’s racers went much smoother than she had anticipated.

Gaiser’s organization adopted 311 dogs in 2009, about 80 of which came near the end of the year, after Dairyland announced it would close. Already this year, 100 dogs have been adopted out.

“The influx of applications was incredible,” Gaiser said.

Promises fulfilled

Dairyland announced in November that it would close at the end of last year, ending a long stretch of money-losing years in a declining industry.

The track at the time guaranteed all greyhounds would be accounted for when it came to finding homes for displaced dogs.

A bonus payment of $5,000 was offered, and eventually granted, to each kennel for clearing out of the property by early February. The last of the track’s 12 registered kennels were out by Jan. 29, Dairyland executive vice president Roy Berger said last week.

An estimated 300 to 500 greyhounds were expected to go up for adoption when the track closed, with others moving on to race in Florida and elsewhere.

Paulus said Greyhound Pets of America helped to move 200 dogs into adoption before the track closed, and another roughly 150 afterward.

Some of the animals shipped to Florida have since found their way back and are up for adoption after they were rejected by other tracks, Paulus said.

Boarder busy

Hans Steffen’s Emerald Greyhounds farm in Wheatland is a clearinghouse for adoptions in the Kenosha area.

Steffen, whose facility can hold up to about 45 dogs at a time, boards canines for Greyhound Pets of America and other organizations.

On Wednesday night, he took delivery of five Alabama dogs for Greyhound Pets of America, which held one of its regular adoption days Saturday — an occasion for families to shop around.

It’s a good development for Steffen, a former owner of greyhound racers who built his facility in 1990, when Dairyland and the now-defunct Geneva Lakes track in Delavan were new entities.

Steffen said his business has skyrocketed since Dairyland’s closing.

“Oh my God, it doubled,” Steffen said.

Dogs remain available

Looking ahead, Greyhounds Only’s Gaiser said those interested in adopting the pets should be aware that plenty of dogs will remain available.

“We’ve been in business for over 14 years and we’re not going out of business now,” Gaiser said.

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Posted By Jen Krebs to Living the Greyt Life... at 3/07/2010 10:04:00 AM