EN/DE: why it's become so hard to adopt a greyhound in the US/warum es so schwer wurde einen Greyhound zu erhalten
Verfasst: Fr 8. Jan 2021, 06:53
I've been seeing a lot of recent discussion and questions on the greyhound boards about why it's become so hard to adopt a greyhound in the US.
To be able to adopt greyhounds, for adoption groups to get them, they have to come from somewhere. The source of our greyhounds is the racing industry, where the dogs get to enjoy doing what they were bred to do, and have a modern working purpose that supports breeding a population of healthy, athletic dogs.
Even before the vote in Florida two years ago to ban racing, the racing industry was shrinking due to various economic factors, compounded by negative public opinion caused by misleading information by anti-racing, animal rights propaganda. Numbers of racing greyhounds being bred have been gradually decreasing for years, while at the same time, their popularity as pets was increasing.
Probably sometime in the last 5-10 years, we had reached an equilibrium in the US, where there was as much demand for retired racers as pets as there were dogs coming off the tracks. Pretty much every greyhound retiring from professional racing was guaranteed a spot with an adoption group or was kept by the racing owner for breeding or to be a personal pet. Since the vote in Florida passed, and greyhound breeding decreased further in anticipation of the majority of the tracks in the US closing, there has been much higher demand for ex-racers than there have been dogs available.
Most adoption groups have had waiting lists for a while as they get more applications and people wanting to adopt than there are dogs. Sadly, the days of families being able to relatively easily adopt a well-bred, well-socialized retired racer for a very affordable adoption fee in the US are past. Just a reality of the current situation.
While I'm sad for all the families wanting an ex-racing greyhound who won't be able to get one, what's even more unfortunate is the irreparable damage that will be done to the greyhound gene pool, the bloodlines that will be lost. Too bad more greyhound lovers didn't think of this and join in to fight the animal rights extremists when it mattered most. And it's too bad that the racing industry didn't have the foresight and the leadership to mount a more effective response as well.
Jennifer Ng
To be able to adopt greyhounds, for adoption groups to get them, they have to come from somewhere. The source of our greyhounds is the racing industry, where the dogs get to enjoy doing what they were bred to do, and have a modern working purpose that supports breeding a population of healthy, athletic dogs.
Even before the vote in Florida two years ago to ban racing, the racing industry was shrinking due to various economic factors, compounded by negative public opinion caused by misleading information by anti-racing, animal rights propaganda. Numbers of racing greyhounds being bred have been gradually decreasing for years, while at the same time, their popularity as pets was increasing.
Probably sometime in the last 5-10 years, we had reached an equilibrium in the US, where there was as much demand for retired racers as pets as there were dogs coming off the tracks. Pretty much every greyhound retiring from professional racing was guaranteed a spot with an adoption group or was kept by the racing owner for breeding or to be a personal pet. Since the vote in Florida passed, and greyhound breeding decreased further in anticipation of the majority of the tracks in the US closing, there has been much higher demand for ex-racers than there have been dogs available.
Most adoption groups have had waiting lists for a while as they get more applications and people wanting to adopt than there are dogs. Sadly, the days of families being able to relatively easily adopt a well-bred, well-socialized retired racer for a very affordable adoption fee in the US are past. Just a reality of the current situation.
While I'm sad for all the families wanting an ex-racing greyhound who won't be able to get one, what's even more unfortunate is the irreparable damage that will be done to the greyhound gene pool, the bloodlines that will be lost. Too bad more greyhound lovers didn't think of this and join in to fight the animal rights extremists when it mattered most. And it's too bad that the racing industry didn't have the foresight and the leadership to mount a more effective response as well.
Jennifer Ng