The Cruelty of Greyhound Dog Racing

As of January 2020, greyhound racing is legal in nine U.S. states and operational and active in only five U.S. states including — Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Texas and West Virginia. Dog racing has been outlawed in the majority of U.S. states including most recently in Florida and Arizona. Six other countries or jurisdictions including Australia, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam have also legalized dog racing and many are experiencing similar financial struggles and declines in greyhound gambling. In the U.S., greyhound gambling has declined 70 percent since 1990.

Greyhound dog racing was first invented in the U.S., where commercial dog racing is typically represented by state-sanctioned gambling, a regulating authority, an industrialized breeding industry, a greyhound tattoo identification system, organized kennel operations, and a network of racetracks.

“A tragic case in point: greyhound racing — a cruel and senseless “sport” that not only kills or injures thousands of dogs every year across the country, but loses money for the places that operate them.” (Published in Huffington Post “The “Abomination of Greyhound Racing”)

Greyhound Racing Investigation, See the Shocking Results (Humane Society of the U.S.)

No Sunshine – 74 Dogs Died at Florida Tracks in 2013

Five Greyhounds Die on Race Tracks Per Week in Australia

https://youtu.be/Ip-zPellKjU

Dog Racing is Cruel and Inhumane – Here’s Why

Greyhounds are Overbred

Each year, tens of thousands of racing greyhounds are bred in the U.S, Ireland and Australia, creating at least 8,000 greyhound litters for the sole purpose of gambling. This produces about 48,000 greyhound puppies per year, many of which are not even recorded by the industry. Because of over-breeding, many of these dogs end up being exported to countries with no animal welfare or protection laws including—China, Macau, Vietnam, Pakistan, Argentina and Spain. In these countries, dogs are routinely killed and discarded.

Greyhounds Live in Extreme Confinement

For 23 hours a day, greyhounds live in warehouse-style stacked cages where they are confined, cannot move or walk, lie on stainless steel floors or crude bedding, are let outside for two to five times per day, and race once every four days in the U.S. In the U.S., standard cage sizes are barely large enough for greyhounds to stand up or turn around. In some countries, the kennels where greyhounds are confined have cold and hard concrete slab floors and metal bars—they are like a prison.

Greyhounds Suffer Catastrophic and Serious Injuries While Racing

Greyhounds suffer routine injuries while racing, many are catastrophic where they collide or crash into another dog, break bones, have their skulls crushed, have seizures, suffer paralysis, have their backs broken, or are electrocuted by owners as a method of euthanizing them.

Between 2008 and 2016, more than 14,000 injuries were reported in the U.S., and of these, over 1,000 dogs were killed or died from their injuries. These are only those that were reported, there are likely tens of thousands more that are unreported. In many countries, injuries are not reported at all including in Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, the UK, Vietnam, Australia, and in the U.S. state of Alabama, so getting an accurate accounting of injuries is extremely difficult.

Greyhounds Are Raced to Death

For greyhounds, their fate is not a good or happy one. The vast majority either die from severe injuries, are deemed too slow to race, or are found unsuitable to race, and too often owners and trainers simply euthanize these dogs or even commit unsanctioned killing of the dogs as a cheap alternative to proper veterinary euthanasia. In Australia, as many as 17,000 healthy greyhounds are killed each year. In Ireland, an average of 38 greyhounds are killed each month as a result of industry over-breeding, but statistics show the number is as high as 6,000 greyhounds killed each year in Ireland. Mass graves have been found outside of racing tracks in Australia and New Zealand. In the U.K., one man, David Smith, shot and killed over 10,000 greyhounds in his backyard slaughterhouse in 15 years—dogs that were too old to continue racing, were injured or sick, or were no longer successful. Greyhounds live for an average lifespan of 12 to 14 years, and these dogs never were allowed to live out their full natural life through adoption. The U.K. reports about 12,000 greyhounds disappear every year.

But how can we ever justify killing a dog simply because they cannot or will not compete or they become too old for the industry. Dog racing is a deeply immoral and unethical industry that abuses, uses, exploits and kills dogs purely for profit.

Greyhound Racing is an Industry Rife with Neglect, Abuse, Cruelty, Drugging, Starvation and Abandonment

The dog racing industry is notorious for committing some of the most heinous and egregious forms of animal cruelty including neglect, starvation, mutilation, drugging, abuse and abandonment. In Florida, dogs were reported starving to death and found barely alive on the Ebro Dog Track. Fortunately, Florida’s citizens unanimously banned dog racing in 2018, effective in January 2020. In New Zealand, dogs don’t “retire,” they are killed when they can no longer run. Dogs that are exported to other countries, can die of starvation, malnutrition, dehydration and suffocation during transit. “Race fixing” is common in the UK, and dogs are doped and drugged until the betting odds become highly profitable. “Live baiting” using live small animals like opossums and rabbits are used as lures to “Blood” the greyhounds. And in 2015, all of the thousands of dogs that were exported to China and Vietnam it was reported, were killed.

Greyhound Dogs are Doped, Drugged, Addicted – and Test Positive for Serious Drugs

Drugging and doping greyhounds before they race is not uncommon, and in some places it is even routinely done. Many of the drugs are illicit, illegal and prohibited like cocaine, EPO, morphine and amphetamines. The industry will often chalk the finding of illegal drugs in dog testing to “tainted food” and a few bad people in the racing industry. The Association of Racing Commissioners is responsible to drug test race tracks and managing drug violations, but the industry is so corrupt, unethical and dishonest, the regulations are not followed or managed, fines are not issued, and the dogs always pay the price.

Greyhound Racing is full of Gambling, Vice, Corruption – A Dying Industry

The greyhound racing industry is slowly dying in every country that has racetracks. Tracks are closing, people are more aware about the cruelty of dog racing, and interests have turned to other forms of gambling. There is a steep decline in public attendance, and many tracks have no audience at all watching the dog races.

There has been a significant decline in wagering on greyhound racing in Macau, the U.S., and Ireland—by millions of dollars. Since 2001, when GREY2K USA Worldwide began campaigning against greyhound racing—31 U.S. dog tracks have closed. In Australia, only 65 tracks remain open of the over 100 tracks they once had. Only half the tracks are now open in New Zealand, and less than half the tracks are open in the U.K. In China, the only legal race track was the Canidrome in Macau – but it closed last year.

More About Dog Racing

Read the full history of dog racing in the U.S. here.

Read the Greyhound Industry on the World Stage FACT SHEET

View the Greyhound Racing in the U.S. FACT SHEET

View the Fact Sheet and Reports for dog racing, by Grey2K USA

See the Summary of Major Reports on Dog RacingPDF, by Grey2K USA

See the Humane Issues in Dog Racing

See Greyhound Racing Around the World

Huffington Post, “The Abomination of Greyhound Racing”

Watch “Making A Killing” by ABC, an expose on live-baiting in Australia

Dog Racing is Illegal in 41 States in the United States

Only five U.S. states have active dog racing tracks including: Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Texas, and West Virginia (dark blue). Dog racing is still legal in four U.S. states but these states have no race tracks including: Connecticut, Kansas, Oregon, and Wisconsin (in pale blue). All dog tracks in these four states have closed and ceased, but a prohibitory statue has yet to be enacted. States that have recently banned dog racing since 2000, include: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island (dark grey). In the remaining 41 states, commercial dog racing is completely illegal. The United States Territory of Guam also outlawed commercial dog racing in 2010.

The following are the most recent U.S. states to pass legislation prohibiting dog racing: Maine (1993), Virginia (1995), Vermont (1995), Idaho (1996), Washington (1996), Nevada (1997), North Carolina (1998), Pennsylvania (2004), Massachusetts (2010), Rhode Island (2010), New Hampshire (2010), Colorado (2014), Arizona (2016) and Florida (2018, effective 2020).

In addition to live dog racing, greyhound simulcast betting exists in several states including Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming. In these states, gamblers are supporting the dog racing industry even though there is no active dog track in their community. Similarly, these simulcast signals depend on the existence of dog tracks in other states.

What You Can Do

Sign These Petitions! Add your name to Grey2K USA petitions and take a stand against greyhound racing.
Take Action!– Sign up for GREY2K’s Action Center to get Action Alerts to help greyhounds!
Ask Your State Legislators – If you live in these five states, please contact your state legislators to ask them to end greyhound racing forever. States include Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Iowa and West Virginia – Contact Forms are Here!
Host an Outreach Table in Your Community– Volunteers are needed to table and distribute information about greyhounds. Support this effort by setting up a table at your local library, town hall, church, school or venue of your choice. Learn how here.
Hold a Rally For Greyhounds!– Join people in your community to rally against dog racing. Here’s how to hold a rally!
Adopt a Greyhound!– Rescue a retired greyhound. There are dogs all over the world that need to be adopted. For information contact [email protected]. Here is a list state-by-state and around the world of rescue organizations that adopt out greyhounds: how to adopt a greyhound near you!
Donate to GREY2K – the largest and only greyhound non-profit dedicated to ending the cruelty dog racing and promoting the rescue and adoption of greyhounds worldwide. Learn more here.

Organizations Helping Greyhounds

GREY2K USA, www.grey2kusa.org

GREY2K USA Worldwide is the largest greyhound protection organization in the world. As a non-profit entity, they work to pass stronger greyhound protection laws and end the cruelty of dog racing on both national and international levels. They also promote the rescue and adoption of greyhounds across the globe.

USA Defenders of Greyhounds, http://www.adopt-a-greyhound.org/node/1174

USA D.O.G. is a national non-profit rescue organization that is totally independent from all aspects of the dog racing industry. They are not affiliated with any other organization(s), do not receive funding from any corporation, foundation, humane society or race track. USA D.O.G. is primarily a rescue organization, their goal is to help bring an end to the use, abuse, and senseless destruction of greyhounds bred for racing. USA Defenders of Greyhounds is one of the oldest and largest rescue organizations in the country, and one of a very few multi-state groups which is totally independent from all aspects of the dog racing industry.

Friends of Retired Greyhounds, www.friendsofretiredgreyhounds.org

Friends of Retired Greyhounds is a 501c3 non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to cooperating with kennel operators and other adoption groups to place retired racing greyhounds in responsible, loving, forever homes. They work with veterinarians to insure that dogs adopted from them are altered, vaccinated, and in good health before placing them in homes. They educate individuals and groups about greyhounds, their history, their lives as racing dogs, and about their adoption program.

National Greyhound Adoption Program, NGAP.org

NGAP’s mission is: 1) To help find loving, adoptive homes for former racing greyhounds, 2) To provide superior knowledge and support for greyhound adopters and other adoption groups, 3) To educate the public and spread awareness about the plight of the greyhound, 4) To provide specialized medical care specifically geared towards the greyhound.