I received an email from Grey2K today and viewed an undercover video of greyhounds at a “top greyhound farm” in New Zealand. Their email and video are below and includes links should you wish to show your support:
“Imagine keeping your dog in a solitary cage, with no bed to rest on or toys to play with. Imagine watching your best friend pace around and around chasing her tail in endless
circles. Then imagine walking away…
It is hard to understand but thousands and thousands of New Zealand greyhounds are living like this right now, and no one is helping them. In fact, the industry admits that there are no welfare standards in place to protect these dogs or to improve their terrible lives. Worse, seven percent of owners admit that dogs may not be placed for adoption after they stop winning. This figure augments the thirty-five
percent of greyhound puppies that the New Zealand Greyhound Racing
Association admits cannot be accounted for. The irrefutable conclusion is that
thousands of beautiful and innocent greyhounds are simply destroyed each year.
Last Fall, GREY2K USA Worldwide worked with FarmWatch and the Greyhound
Protection League of New Zealand to get the first look at these
dogs. Our undercover investigation of a major New Zealand racing kennel
revealed the sad truth that greyhounds endure lives of confinement and many
exhibit neurotic behaviors. When our investigators approached them, some dogs
tried to push their heads right out of their cages to be petted. This is how
desperate for attention these poor dogs are.
Please help us rescue New Zealand’s greyhounds from the racing industry. With
your support, we will do more than just document this cruelty, we will fight it.
As we have found in the United States, there is a path forward to protecting greyhounds and we know that much work lies ahead. Now is the time to
take the first step. Won’t you please help?
Learn more on our New Zealand campaign page now. Then, pledge a donation and sign our petition to help end dog racing in yet another part of the world.”
Angels Bark 
A great topic to bring attention to. I’ll share it with my five NZ friends. As an Australian I feel like I should have a few more of those. I’m curious about your choice of words, specifically when you come to talking about these lovely dogs being “destroyed.” How do you come up with an appropriate verb? I would have been tempted to replace that word with “murdered,” but I don’t think it’s legally possible to murder a dog. Either way, thank you very much for sharing this. I have a lot of grey hound race loving friends in Sydney, and perhaps this will make them take a second look at least.
LikeLike
Thank YOU!!! The subject needs as much attention as possible. As presented, the entire text within the quotation marks is the email that I received from Grey2K. I think murdered is a better word choice too. Actually I would’ve used ‘killed’. Any way you look at it though, the dogs are destroyed: they’re destroyed from living a full life, destroyed from having a chance to experience a loving family and a comfortable home. All of that is destroyed when they are put down needlessly when they could’ve easily been put into adoption programs. And it angers me so much! Thank you for sharing with your NZ friends. Please ask them to spread the word too. And thanks for your kind heart. The world needs more of those for sure.
LikeLike
You’re more than welcome. I’ll always repost any animal cruelty articles I come across that haven’t made it to the mainstream media. As a pet owner, I’ve never understood the idea of putting down an animal because it was inconvenient. This is a last resort in the case of incurable and debilitating illness. Hopefully this does the rounds of my Facebook friends and their affiliates; I know many of them are passionate animal rights supporters. I’m particularly sensitive to this issue as several years ago I had a darling of a cat who was brutally assaulted. He was just the kindest soul and would go out and sit on the fence to talk to passersby, and would let anyone approach him. After several weeks in intensive care he came out almost put together, but he’s blind in one eye and will likely have mobility issues as he ages, due to the multiple fractures he sustained. Unfortunately my circumstances changed and I could no long keep those cats. I spent several weeks interviewing potential new families for them, and gave them to a lovely couple who had three gorgeous and very gentle children. It never once occurred to me send them to a shelter. Now that I’m settled, I often think about a sneaky trip back to Melbourne to reclaim them, but I couldn’t bear to break the hearts of those children. If you’re interested, I could work up something publishable for you – or at least quotable or editable. I definitely have some after pictures which show the lasting effects of the damage. I didn’t take any in the ICU, because it didn’t occur me that I’d ever want to see that again. There are some really sweet before pictures too. I was a bit late to the digital camera game, so I was worried that I’d left them all in Sydney when I moved. Let me know if you’re interested and I can put something together. Otherwise, here’s a link to the Facebook Julius and Sadie album – https://www.facebook.com/jane.v.armstrong.3/media_set?set=a.9414642959.20542.559387959&type=3 You’ll have to friend request me to get access, but I’ll accept.
Back to the original question re: choosing verbs. I imagine it must be difficult for you and require some self moderation. You need to get the message across, but if you’re too honest I imagine some people would be put off.
LikeLike
Yes I would be interested in cross-posting your story. How sad. Were the monster perpetrators ever caught? Why would someone do something like that? I just don’t get it. Future serial killers in the making… I’m so sorry that happened to you and your kitty. But I’m glad the story had a happy ending for your cat. That’s a blessing.
LikeLike
Thanks. It was a happy ending for him. It broke my heart when I had to give him away. I’ll work on something to send to you. No one was ever caught, nor seriously enough suspected of it to be investigated. It was frightening as there was an elementary school and a preschool on the opposite block. The police and the RSPCA said they could only investigate if they knew who had done it. Um… isn’t it their job to investigate and find the perpetrators of crime? And do they think for one second that if I knew who’d done it I would have bothered bringing the incident to their attention? I don’t know how I’d get the story to you. It’s not really something the I feel goes on my quilting blog. I could leave it as a comment, but I don’t know if I can/how to attach photos to one. Please let me know your thoughts.
On a completely unrelated note, I came across this story that might interest you: http://nypost.com/2014/03/05/tattoo-artist-inks-dog-while-pup-sedated-after-surgery/ It’s very bizarre! Even if the dog was sedated at the time, it still has to go through the healing process. It was a very selfish and thoughtless thing to do, even if it’s not technically animal abuse.
LikeLike
you can send it to me via email: michele@angelsbark.com
RE: the tattoo on the pup: I don’t like it either. I don’t like branding of cattle. I have greyhounds and when the NGA registered greyhounds are puppies they get tattooed in their ears as a way of identifying them and I think that’s actually good. Now the vets are doing tattoos on pets that are spayed so that future vets will know they spaying has been done. So I guess it just depends on the circumstance. I would never choose to tattoo my dog just for vanity sake. That’s crazy!
LikeLike
Thanks! I’ll get it to you in the next few days.
On the tattoo issue, I think it’s not a bad idea for veterinary reasons, particularly if animals have had certain organs removed. And I’ve no problem with it for identification purposes. I’m opposed to branding because it’s completely inhuman to burn anything into any animals flesh, but many of the farmers I know have switched to ear tagging. I assume it’s on a relative pain scale to having cartilage pierced, which isn’t too bad, but I could be completely wrong. Either way; it’s preferable to branding. There’s no point in tattooing my dog, even if I felt like it. He’s such a scruffy mess. Well, I suppose I could write my name on his abdomen where he just has baby fluff, but that would be cruel. It’s such soft sensitive skin there, and I couldn’t bear to see him in a cone for such a stupid reason. Some people are just indescribably idiotic!
LikeLike