Dog racing | InCity Times

Story and photos by Rosalie Tirella

We visited one of my favorite places today, Greyhound Friends Inc., in Hopkinton. A beautiful, miracle of a shelter/haven for “retired” greyhounds, gorgeous canine racers labeled, by the dog racing industry, “past their prime” and disposable at just 2 or 3 years old.

I am PROUD to say InCity Times played a part in shutting down this cruel, dog-soul-sapping “sport” in MA!!!!!

We worked for YEARS with the various groups to END dog racing in our state! A special THANK YOU to ICT WRITER STEVE BAER!! (We – all the animals! – love you, Steve!)

Rescued, “retired” greyhounds need so much love! Truth? All the earth’s animals are at mankind’s mercy! What a tragedy! Into the forest, prairie, field or canyon, we stupid humans descend, killing and capturing and degrading everything in sight! We go to the oceans to strip their denizens of dignity! Of life! We murder whales and dolphins and seals. We create unending living hells for animals on our factory farms, in circuses, fairs or on streets…they are our “beasts of burden” and know the blood encrusted lash or die pulling heavy wagons up hills (Leicester’s steep Dead Horse Hill was not named for nothing!). Racing … fighting…there is no end to what we humans do to them. All the suffering! Even when they are our companion animals, “pets,” many of us still abuse or neglect them!

My first dog, Grace, was half greyhound – brindle colored. I adopted her at the Worcester Animal Rescue League on Holden Street. What a beautiful first ever dog! Sweet, gentle, loving, patient … she was with me for 10+ years. She was a dream come true! And a natural athlete! I loved to watch my Gracie run! Her joy! Her adrenaline rush kicking in during her wild dashes! Her loose-limbed calm after her race around the Woo! park! Her easy, slack jawed canine “smile.” In her prime, Grace could outflank any dog she was playing/running with – except for purebred greyhounds!

The greyhounds that are trucked into Greyhound Friends (they also place Beagles and hounds of all stripes)…

… break your heart when they come off the trucks, driven in from race tracks from all over the country/world: the dogs don’t know how to play, are uncomfortable standing on grass or in the sunlight! They are skittish and very shy.

They just wanna hide in their kennels because that’s all they know: living, eating, peeing, shitting in small cages, sometimes stacked on top of each other. They eat a horrible liquid diet, so their teeth are rotted when they are at the end of their racing days. Many have to have lots of their teeth pulled! GF sends most of their dogs to their special dentist when they first come to them (the dogs also visit GF’s veterinarians for all their vaccines, etc.).

The dogs are emotionally, as well as physically, deprived! They have had no one to cuddle them or give them a loving home life. They look so miserable and shell-shocked standing, on lead, in the middle of GF’s beautiful, open field when they first trot off those big, long trucks! I’ve seen it! A few are even afraid of umbrellas and such because they’ve been hit with things. We can only guess what kind of objects! The poor animals can’t talk to us! Tell us humans how sad or lonely we make them or how scary and violence-ridden their past lives were!

Jesus loved the animals, as he loved the children – His Innocents!

Won’t you please visit Greyhound Friends today and adopt one of their beauties?

Thank you!