Good News: Dairyland greyhound racing ended 12-31-09
Goodbye and good riddance. The last dog track in Wisconsin closed its doors.
Depending on what articles you have read, 350 to 900 dogs will need to be adopted or go elsewhere to race or back to the farm for breeding and dog knows what else.
Here are some articles about Dairyland and the mistreatment of the dogs. For you diehards out there who say, “Oh, but the dogs love to race.” Read these articles:
Four Dairyland dogs bleed to death.
Dogs may like to run but not on frozen tundra tracks. Thanks to the anonymous employees who spoke out!
A (PDF) history pockmarked by bad incidents.
The weather plays a role in injuries at Dairyland. The dogs are subjected to rain, wind, snow, sleet and very dry conditions.
There are more article, more tragedies, and many more abuses. Enough said for now.
My hope is that the majority of these dogs find loving forever homes and don’t have to race to their death at other tracks, aren’t disposed of, or sent to blood banks or laboratories to be used as medical experiments.
So which is the first dog track to close in 2010?
We adopted one of the retired Dairyland racers from Greyhounds Only. He’s a wonderful dog and GO has worked extremely hard to take in 92 of the approximately 261 displaced Dairyland dogs. I believe all or nearly all of them have been placed in loving homes like ours.
All of the 261 Dairyland dogs that were slated to become pets went to adoption groups. Unfortunately, the Dairyland management has had a very anti-adoption lean in the policies that they implemented to close the tracks which led to many lower grade racers being sent to tracks in Florida rather than being retired. Several Dairyland kennel operators who moved to other tracks requested to send their retired dogs to adoption groups in Wisconsin and they were eagerly told yes, GO and other groups in Wisconsin would take their dogs.
Currently, GO and the Greyhound Alliance are working to arrange hauls of Florida racers that were displaced by Dairyland dogs. They have received more than 18 retired Florida racers so far and at least one former Dairyland racer who has since been retired. Please give them all the kudos and support that they deserve for being there for the “forgotten” Florida Panhandle hounds!
Sara
Thanks for letting us know how hard the rescue groups are working to save these precious dogs.
Folks, please consider contributing some money to help these groups:
Greyhounds Only – http://www.greyhoundsonly.com
Greyhound Alliance – http://www.greyhoundalliance.org