Greyhounds | Florida votes to end racing, concerned about exodus

Macau will soon no longer be the only jurisdiction to grapple with a greyhound retirement problem. Last week, Florida voters had the backing of a two-thirds majority on a state-wide measure to ban greyhound racing by the end of 2020.

Amendment 13 will see as many as 11 tracks close in the next few years and thousands of greyhounds will either be retired or moved to other racing facilities.

It passed with 69 percent of the vote – more than the 60 percent needed to pass – representing an overwhelming call for an end to greyhound racing. The vote was in line with decisions the world over, like those recently in Macau and in Australia, to clamp down on the so-called ‘deadly’ sport.

Like in Macau, Florida activists have long criticized the alleged mistreatment of greyhounds in the dog racing industry.

According to a report from the New York Times, the activists objected to what they saw as harsh living conditions and the dogs’ propensity to sustain injuries, such as broken bones.

A 2015 joint report from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Grey2K tallied some 11,000 greyhound injuries across the U.S. and more than 900 deaths between 2008 and 2015. The report said that some of the animals had died in their cages, while others had sustained serious injuries while racing.

In Florida, legislation approved in 2010 made it mandatory for track operators to report greyhound deaths. Since it came into effect in 2013, reports have shown that one greyhound dies from track- related problems on average every three days. To date, nearly 500 racing greyhounds have died at such facilities within the state.

But greyhound owners and racers dispute these allegations, saying that the dogs are well cared for and are not made to race if they are unhealthy.

With the sites forced to close by the end of 2020, Florida faces an exodus of former racing greyhounds.

As of October, there were about 3,700 greyhounds in Florida, according to animal activist organizations Humane Society of the United States and Grey2K USA Worldwide. Not all of these will be up for adoption, as half are expected to be transferred to other tracks to live out the rest of their racing lifetimes.

Those involved in the rehoming of greyhounds that have been put up for adoption are worried about the potential exodus if too many tracks close at the same time.

“There is no way to know when the tracks will close or how many dogs are coming into the market, so we are sitting on pins and needles, but also quietly working to try to find new foster homes, calling vets about care packages and looking for people willing to drive vans to Florida to pick the dogs up,” Carol Becker, president of God’s Greyts, told the New York Times.

“We are trying to avoid a crisis if too many tracks close around the same time and there are not enough homes lined up.”