THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 31, 1994 TAG: 9410270017
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
As the owner of three rescued, retired racing greyhounds, I am grateful for your excellent article (Metro News, Oct. 10) covering the National Greyhound Adoption Program Tidewater Area Annual Picnic. I hope it informed many about the unique qualities of this loving, gentle creature as well as the deplorable, shameful practices of the greyhound racing industry.
Everyone must be made aware that every greyhound bred for racing is eventually killed (more than 50,000 a year).
If a puppy shows no desire to chase the lure, it is killed.
If a dog is lucky enough to make it to its maiden race but performs poorly, it is killed.
If a dog does race for one or two years but then no longer races fast enough to bring in the money, it is killed.
Most racing careers are over by age 3. Some dogs are humanely euthanized by lethal injection, but many are killed by bludgeoning, shooting, drowning, electrocution and starvation simply because it is easier and cheaper.
Of course, this is only one seedy aspect of dog racing. While alive, the racing greyhound spends its days in a cramped cage, many subjected to physical and emotional abuses by their caretakers. To this day, one of my greyhounds still cringes and trembles in fear at the sight of a man.
Two of my three arrived undernourished.
Now that horse racing will soon be here, we all must make sure greyhound racing does not follow. Virginia does not need to make ``blood money.'' I hope that everyone will support Sen. Fred Quale's Senate Bill 537 to ban greyhound racing in our state forever.
HARRIET GOLOMBEK
Virginia Beach, Oct. 14, 1994 by CNB