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Because there are about 100 industry-endorsed adoption organizations ready to take dogs, and a dwindling number of greyhounds in what remains of the sport, even racing opponents like Grey2K executive director Carey Theil doubt there will be dogs left in limbo.
Theresa Hume, director of publicity for Palm Beach Kennel Club, said the majority of the track’s 600 dogs will be adopted out after the last race Dec. 31, but she also could not give an exact breakdown of how many will continue racing.
“These are the death throes of greyhound racing,” said Theil, whose Grey2K group backed the campaign to pass Amendment 13. “The industry deep down knows there’s not going to be some magical resurgence. The question is how long it will take to end completely and how many dogs die in the meantime.”
Derby Lane had 609 dogs at the track as of mid-December, according to marketing coordinator Alexis Winning. But Winning said it was too early to confirm how many would be adopted out versus being sent to race elsewhere.
About Taylor Martin Taylor is a reporter for WUFT News who can be reached by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing [email protected].
TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers last week made changes that will provide “much needed relief” in …
“The things were doing now with animal welfare we should have been doing 20 years ago, 30 years ago, for that matter,” said Jim Gartland, the executive director and secretary treasurer of the National Greyhound Association and the former general manager of Arapahoe Park, a Thoroughbred track in Colorado. “If we had done it then we might not be in the boat we are in now. We should have been weeding out the bad apples, including bad apples that operated the racetracks. That would have gone a long way toward helping our cause.”
After Massachusetts, one state after another started to fall. According to the Grey2K website, greyhound racing is illegal in 41 states and 40 tracks have shut down since the organization was formed.
The greyhound industry has taken meaningful steps to make sure that homes are found for retired dogs, but it has been a case of too little too late.
It was the latest and most important victory to date by animal rights activists who have been so successful in their efforts to end the sport that it is close to extinction in the U.S. It is a story of what they are capable of accomplishing and one Thoroughbred racing can ill afford to ignore.
But ending greyhound racing in Florida looked like a hard battle to win. The greyhound industry was firmly entrenched there, seeped in history, and it was responsible for thousands of jobs. After the bill to end the sport was introduced, greyhound interests dug in for a fight.
The Final Stretch: The end of Greyhound Racing in Florida
The gates open and long legs stretch onto a dirt track. The greyhounds sprint at over 40 mph toward the robotic rabbit leading the pack, desperate to be the first to reach it.
After decades of dog racing at tracks across the state, they will stop chasing come Jan. 1.
That’s when Amendment 13 takes effect in Florida. Passed with 69 percent of the vote in a statewide election in 2018, the amendment to the state constitution prohibits wagering on live dog races held in Florida and will ultimately force the closure of 11 racetracks.
Dog racing is now illegal in 41 states – and the two remaining tracks in Florida will soon have their last live races. The last one at Derby Lane in St. Petersburg is set for Dec. 27, and the Palm Beach Kennel Club will have its final one on New Year’s Eve.
Isadore Havenick, 42, still fondly remembers the Flagler Dog Track in Miami. Like most racetracks in Florida, it was family owned and he basically grew up there. Havenick went often to the track as a child, and years later, he walked the dogs and even announced a few races.
“I’m an animal person,” he said as his mastiff named Kitty snored beside him, and a surprisingly fast tortoise sped around his house.
“It was time,” Havenick said about the track ending its live racing in June 2018, five months before the vote on Amendment 13.
Prior Florida law required businesses to hold dog races in order to also provide other forms of gambling. Havenick said his family’s track held over 400 races a year to meet the requirement.
In 2017, the state’s business and professional regulation department permitted West Flagler Associates, the group that operates Magic City Casino and the Flagler Dog Track, to replace dog racing with jai alai and keep their machines and poker tables.
The Sarasota Kennel Club, like other tracks, opted for daily simulcasting to keep its poker room running. In simulcasting, greyhound races across the country are streamed for wagering.
After 90 years of live racing, its last dog crossed the finish line on May 4, 2019. Since then, there’s been discussion of the 24-acre track becoming affordable housing.
“Let’s not lose sight of the hundreds of thousands of dogs that went through these tracks, that lived in cages, that were given harmful drugs, that suffered injuries and died,” said Carey Theil, Grey2K’s executive director.
“I don’t know that there is another issue that truly united people on the left with people on the right, people from the panhandle with people from South Florida,” Theil said.
Some say an unintended consequence of Amendment 13 has been preventing an influx of dogs going to greyhound adoption agencies and shelters. Each dog track has anywhere from 500 to 1,000 dogs, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
However, tracks and breeders aren’t giving greyhounds to shelters who speak negatively against dog racing, according to one shelter owner who is eager to find new homes for the dogs and re-home them. He asked to remain anonymous so as to not anger the track owners and breeders.
Since 2013, 493 dogs have died on racetracks nationwide, Kitty Block, president and CEO of The Humane Society, said in a blog post. Of those dogs, 94% were three years or younger. The dogs usually spend 20 to 23 hours of their day in crates, Block wrote.
“I think it was a victory for everyone in the state who cares about dogs,” Theil said.