The report documents specific problems at Massachusetts dog tracks including:
Thousands of Massachusetts greyhounds endure lives of confinement, kept for 20 or more hours each day in cages barely large enough to stand up or turn around in.
According to state records more than 800 Massachusetts racing greyhounds have been injured since 2002, including dogs suffering broken legs, paralysis and even death from cardiac arrest on the track.
Greyhound racing is a dying industry. Even local dog track owners acknowledge that their businesses are failing. Between 2002 and 2007, the total amount gambled at Wonderland Greyhound Park and Raynham Park declined by 65% and 37%, respectively.
“The industry keeps dogs in confinement for hours on end, races them to the point of breakdown and injury, and discards them like a throwaway commodity when the animals are no longer of use,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. “This just isn’t acceptable treatment of man’s best friend.”
The Committee to Protect Dogs is a state ballot question committee dedicated to passing stronger dog protection laws in the Commonwealth. Committee co-chairs include representatives of the MSPCA-Angell (www.mspca.org), The Humane Society of the United States (www.humanesociety.org) and greyhound protection group GREY2K USA (www.grey2kusa.org). For more information, call Brian Adams at 617-541-5120 or visit www.ProtectDogs.org.
for the report visit:
http://www.protectdogs.org/pdf…
