Greyhound Racing – the victim of imbalance
Not all the greyhounds who are born, get to race eventually. In case 48,000 pups are born in a certain year, there is a high chance that only 38,000 will get registered to move on with their greyhound racing career. With the left behind pups, some are used
for breeding purposes; some are taken away by people who want to keep them as pets, and unfortunately the remaining have to be euthanised.
It takes usually seventeen to eighteen months for a pup to become a trained greyhound, and then they are sent to the tracks. They are given away to the different tracks which have trainers attached to them, and they further take in the greyhounds to their
kennel. The track ends up leasing the dogs from their owners.
The tracks that the greyhounds get attached to, is primarily based on the racing expertise of the dogs.
The hounds usually are declared unfit for racing when they fail at timing the minimum speed at a training track at the age of eleven months. For reality check, those who cannot make money for the kennel are useless for it, for the majority, racing greyhounds
is a profession and not passion, thus they do not have provision for the dogs who fail to deliver.
Those who do make it to the race tracks become the obvious priority and concern for the connections.
"They love the kennel life," said Gary Guccione, secretary/treasurer of the National Greyhound Association (NGA). "The Greyhounds are kept in immaculate condition. They are racing athletes and need to be given the best of care, the best of feed, the best
comforts in order for them to perform at maximum ability. Their kennel conditions are immaculate and their bedding is fresh clean paper or carpet."
They have set routines at the tracks, and are taken out for exercise thrice or even four times a day. On average a greyhound races twice a week under a mile’s distance. They get a proper medical examination after the races and are tested for drugs too.
The debate over the humanity and ethnicity of the race will continue as all the race tracks are not the same.
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