EN: The Situation in Florida.

[Greyhound-Forum]

Guest Opinion by Vinnie and Krissi Mancini

Now that the end of the year is upon us and that abomination of an Amendment (A13) will be going into "effect", I felt it was time to revisit this. All 11 tracks in Florida will officially cease racing on 12/31/2020 (if they haven't already). Here's the kicker, the State of Florida has failed to enact ANY enforcement or penalties for violating the Amendment. That coupled with the fact that our law suit is still pending in the court of appeals means that the tracks COULD still be running with no penalty, IF they desired to. Again, THERE ARE NO PENALTIES AND NO ENFORCEMENT in place for the tracks to continue racing. The attorney for our appeal has verified this with the court and reached out to the 3 remaining tracks that were still running in December. Sadly, for their own reasons the tracks have decided to shut down anyway. It's truly a shame that not a single one wanted to make a point and continue.....But let's not skip over the fact that Florida failed to enact enforcement or penalties to the Amendment. Read into that what you will, I know I am.

NOW, what of the organizations/individuals behind the Amendment? What have they done to assist with the efforts to rehome all of these displaced Greyhounds or the people that were forced into unemployment? Read on.....

Grey2k, the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the Unites States have placed EXACTLY 0 GREYHOUNDS (You read that right). They have donated EXACTLY $0 (yep, you read that right too) to greyhound adoption groups on the front lines who are responsible for the vetting, transportation and rehoming of all retired racers. Two of the lying, corrupt politicians that led the charge to end greyhound racing, Pam Bondi and Carlos Guillermo Smith have adopted EXACTLY 0 greyhounds...Despite their claims that they each would adopt "many". With all the doom and gloom they spread about the alleged mistreatment of our hounds, you'd think they'd be doing something, wouldn't you?! That says all you need to know about them! But considering this is the M.O. of Grey2k and EXACTLY what they did in New England and Arizona (seriously look it up), I guess no one should be surprised, I know I'm not!

But what of the aforementioned doom and gloom?

Are you ready? .......EXACTLY 0 Greyhounds have been euthanized as a result of track closures. Let me say it louder for the people in the back....EXACTLY 0 GREYHOUNDS HAVE BEEN EUTHANIZED AS A RESULT OF TRACK CLOSURES. We are at a 100% adoption or relocation rate..Why is that you ask? Because #greyhoundnation (adoption groups, trainers, kennels, farmers, helpers and enthusiasts) who have always looked out for the best interest of our dogs, stepped up to the plate and vowed that no Greyhound would be left behind or unaccounted for. Hell, we've donated more money as individuals to the cause than the multi million dollar activist groups have, but to be fair $0 isn't tough to beat is it?

But yet those same organizations claimed that we were evil animal abusers that "discarded or destroyed" our Greyhounds. Obviously, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Now for the MILLIONTH DAMN TIME, I implore you to ask yourself: who REALLY cares/cared about these dogs? . Next time Florida, you NEED to pay better attention to what's at risk and who's behind it before you cast a vote on something YOU KNOW JACK$HIT about! I will NEVER forgive you for displacing the dogs I love , or putting my friends and colleagues families at risk by causing their unemployment.

P.S.- If you're reading this and you voted to end racing in Florida and therefore voted my aforementioned friends/colleagues into unemployment, unfriend me now! You won't be missed.

#GreyhoundRacing #Grey2K

[Greyhound-Forum]

good news!

***********UPDATE ON OUR CASE ***************
It has been some time since we have posted an update as we were awaiting a ruling by the 3 judge panel in order for our case to continue proceeding in Florida BUT…
We had an unexpected turn take place recently.
Our counsel Dawn Alba has done a great job representing the interests of Greyhound Nation, and she as well as we expected the panel to rule on the briefs and arguments submitted to the court.
However, on its own volition, the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, one level below the United States Supreme Court, has ordered oral arguments in our case. NEITHER SWA NOR THE STATE OF FLORIDA REQUESTED ORAL ARGUMENTS
What does this mean?
It is somewhat rare for the US regional circuit Courts to allow oral arguments when one side requests it. It is even more rare for the court to order it on their own. This means our case to Overturn 13 and the different actions and rulings so far have caught the attention of the 2nd highest court in the land, enough for them to order oral arguments early this summer.
It means our lawyer did a wonderful job – enough to cause them to want to dig in to this more and not just dismiss us. We cannot be more grateful to have Dawn Alba fighting for Greyhound Nation! Oral Arguments before the US Court of Appeals are a highly specialized thing – there are firms who do ONLY this. The fact we did not ask for this but the Court sees something in our case means it could set precedent.
As an example…in 2020 only ELEVEN PERCENT of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (our court) were granted an oral argument. It will NOT grant this argument IF
(a) The appeal is frivolous; or
(b) The dispositive issue or set of issues recently has been authoritatively decided; or
(c) The facts and legal arguments are presented adequately in the briefs and record, and the decisional process would not be aided significantly by oral argument.
We are conferring with Dawn on how to proceed. This could garner much attention for us, and bring to light what the AR extremists have done and hopefully eventually shed light on the wrongs done. We will need to discuss how to proceed and how to get some help to get this oral argument done, and we will be updating everyone ASAP on how we will try to proceed!!!