We are grateful for the amazing support we received from local bloggers, and are gratified that voters responded to our true grassroots campaign with such a sweeping victory.
Some of our blog supporters included Blue Mass Group, Ryan’s Take, Left in Lowell, Granby01033, JoeTrippi.com, ShrewsBuried, Left of Boston, Live, Love and Learn, Marry in Massachusetts, Middleboro Review, Sacred Cod, Solon Economou and Vertigo.
We took our fight directly to voters because we believed there was a disconnect on this issue between voters, the mainstream media, and lawmakers on Beacon Hill. To seek resolution, we needed to go directly to the people.
Now that the debate over greyhound racing is over, we will move on to the transition phase.
Already, we have contacted the administration to signal our commitment to help ensure track workers gain access to retraining services. Also, we are working on a plan to help find homes for all dogs the industry is willing to make available. Speaking for myself, I am personally committed to adopting another greyhound.
Thank you again for helping pass Question 3. You have helped make today a better day for greyhounds.
was the two Counties that voted no.
Plymouth and Bristol both a huge splotch of red on the Globe map, with Raynham at the center. The people most affected by track closings were most opposed.
Raynham’s actual employee base is actually very small and its costumer base minute and dwindling. That’s not to say some people won’t be affected, but most people were moving on anyway and for those who weren’t, they have 14 months to do so – with promises both by the Committee to Protect Dogs and Governor Patrick on retraining people and helping them finding new work. So, any potential problems due to these tracks closing will be mitigated, not to mention that there will likely be new job growth as the tracks are closed and property transitioned toward something else, hopefully something forward thinking that will actually spark and grow the economy – and not any of the lame, hair-brained ideas propagated by George Carney that are quite thankfully illegal in Massachusetts.
Now there is a promise that gets thrown around a lot.
The government has been retraining and helping place people for how many decades now? Yet the percentage of people who actualy have jobs is the lowest ever recorded.
We dont need any more stinking teachers unless they want to start teaching people to mind their own flipping business.
despite the bad attitude. Retraining is often just lip service, and here it played an obvious role in helping people overcome reservations about voting yes.
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p>Dismissive comments about the plight of the workers in other comments on this thread are a pretty good indication of that.
…, if you’ve got two years to see this coming and try to jump ship, I think that’s not too bad. This kind of thing happens on big construction jobs all the time.
When will the dopes learn that government agencies aren’t about doing anything but maintaining their bureaucracy? Did anyone notice that industrial accidents have risen since OSHA started? Training winds up as a place you have to go if you want to get on or stay on the dole. Even drivers’ training wound up a being a place for kids to see movies of auto chases, punctuated by various smoke breaks.
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p>How many greyhounds will now be euthanized? This law is just a death sentence for working dogs.
I was happy to support this measure as someone who has had contact with the end results of this barbaric practice – the poor damaged dogs at the end of their career.
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p>There are three things I am worried about and you address two; the adoption of existing dogs that may be abandoned by the industry (and I knew you guys would be on top of it!), and helping the smattering of workers who will need new jobs (who knows, probably better ones). I’m glad you are willing to work on the second as well.
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p>The last thing I am worried about is that the tracks are already pushing for the damn slot machines again. I know you guys are tired from this fight, but the redevelopment of these locations should be something beneficial to the community, not worse in another way (the abuse of human weakness). If you could see fit to hang in there and alert your supporters to the next phase (making sure we keep the slots out), I would be really grateful, because something tells me that these guys are going to throw everything they have into that fight.
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p>Ryan was right on our podcast the other day; they seemed to have bypassed rescinding the racing ban and gone right to “well then let us have slots.” Sigh.
There are probably a hundred lovable pooches waiting to be euthanised, in tiny cages, on any given day.
Oh where is the compasion?
Maybe we can retrain the greyhounds to become attack dogs and set them loose in Cambridge.
That would save them from the needle and then all we would need to do is euthanize the humans since they will still have no function, with or without the all that valuable “retraining”.
All of our dogs have been adopted from local MSPCA and city animal shelters, including our Greyhound. Furthermore, MA is a net importer of dogs for adoption. Far fewer shelter dogs are euthanized in this state than in most.
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p>But by all means, do consider adopting a shelter animal if you are up to the responsibility.
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who will be laid off in one of the worst economies in decades. I hope that “retraining” means more than a few cursory classes in resume building so that the well-meaning can get their “compassion tickets” punched.
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I do feel bad for the workers who will eventually lose their jobs. Of course, there are already a lot more people out of work in this state than will lose their jobs from the shutdown of the track. Even if the tracks were not going to be shutdown, I would have to assume that the recession will further depress turnout at the tracks and force some job cuts.
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difficult situation. And let’s hope that “feeling bad” translates into real dollars to help in the transition and real job training for these people.
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p>I wonder what business we should shut down next?
General Dynamics, Raytheon, Textron for a start?
Doesnt “retraining” also come with a personal tutoring session with a highly empathetic DOT employee who will show them how to use the departments job search software?
The DOT employees who “helped” me when I was out of work gave me little support in finding work, and were absolutely obnoxious. I am looking forward to seeing what “retraining” looks like for dog track employees.
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p>So I hope these well-meaning folks who ran this question on the ballot and put these people out of work put their money where their collective mouths are. It’s wonderful to care about the dogs – but now that they’ve done this, they need to care about the people. Being put out of work after decades, at the age of 40-60+ is no picnic.
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p>So – what business should we close down by ballot next? Pharma? Cigarettes? Coke/Pepsi? Gillette?
Ballot ’em all.
So if somebody can have a job, we should allow the industry no matter what pain it causes?? Shall we bring back slave trading in order to give people jobs, too?
just as not everyone feels the same way about “fetal rights”.
After all, dogs are not citizens. Drawing a line on animal rights/animal cruelty is not easy, especially since the majority of people eat animals.
I can consider that line of argument a lot better than “Don’t make it illegal cuz pepple will lose jobs!!” The snarky side of me would suggest that they go into marijuana distribution, and maybe all the referendums will work out.
This is an industry regulated by the state police. Just because there are a few hysterical ads on television doesn’t make it factual or actual in Massachusetts. And I also wouldn’t equate dog racing with the slave trading. That type of argument isn’t your usual modus operandi, Sab. It’s actually kind of surprising coming from you.
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p>And regarding the “pain it causes”; this is a party that supports “choice” as long as it is politically correct. Abortion politics are politically correct. Dog racing – is somehow less moral and should be forbidden. Yeah, I’m don’t “follow” it either. We are literally telling people how they should use their land, resources and staff. They do that in Russia.
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p>They do that in every inch of civilized space on the planet. This is as purposefully dense as the whole “Redistributionist in Chief” crap McCain was trying to pull.
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p>Don’t believe me? Try opening a meth lab in your house. Try crashing your car into plate glass windows. Hire somebody to drop rocks onto cars from an overpass. Yeah, use your resources, land, and staff that way, and good luck. This is an argument to re-install cockfighting, or bullfighting. Hell, let’s open up arenas where people can pay $20 to shoot at kittens, while we’re at it.
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p>The whole idea of society is that we all give up some freedom for security. We can argue over where to draw that line, and Farnkoff lucidly discusses that this is an argument over where to draw the line between animal and human suffering. But to say “They do that in Russia” isn’t up to your typical level of contribution, J4A. Frankly, Russia didn’t do enough of this type of regulation in the early 1990s, which is how it ended up such an autocratic/criminal place today.
is achieved by banning dog racing? I’m trying to understand what we’ve gained? The kennels that own the dogs will ship them to another, less-regulated state to race. The dog groomers and other staff will be out of work, in one of the worst economies in decades. Hundreds of people are tossed out of work, adding to the already hundreds of people out of work. The owners of the race tracks will be forking over big bucks to get the largely self-interested Legislature to move on casinos.
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p>What’s the net gain? Self-congratulations?
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p>There is something very, very creepy about closing a legal business by ballot. This isn’t a meth lab. This isn’t reckless driving. This isn’t dropping rocks on cars from an overpass. This was a regulated industry in this state. So instead of using the laws, the nanny state has banned it. This feels like slippery slope land to me. This feels Putinesque, except instead of an autocrat, we have a bullycrat republic.
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p>And if we’re really serious about animal rights – why aren’t we closing down puppy mills, horse racing, bio-labs, cosmetic companies, etc? I’d have a tad more respect for what was just perpetrated on these dog racing workers than what just happened. We haven’t “saved” the dogs. We have put people out of work, and the lobbyists are ginning up for casinos. Yeah, Massachusetts! What a good job!
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Since banning any business you like is somehow “Putinesque”, could you tell me: should we ban anything, anything at all? Because every industry, no matter how morally disgusting, will provide jobs. Every industry, no matter how awful, will adapt to changes in the law by finding loopholes and avoiding regulation. Every industry is connected to another, and it will seem like hypocrisy if we ban some and not others. I think it is hypocritical to ban marijuana and not tobacco, but hell, there would be hypocrisy in banning marijuana and tobacco, but not additive caffeine. Your slippery slope and hypocrisy arguments aren’t relevant to a discussion on dog racing, but a discussion on anarchism v. government. Most of what you write is speaks more in favor of giving up on government than keeping dog racing.
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p>If you want to believe that regulations on the books magically make problems go away, don’t ever work in retail. Don’t ever work in a restaurant kitchen. Don’t ever go to auto repair shop. Sometimes it is more effective and fair in the long run to ban something, rather than just start a cat-and-mouse game with the law.
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p>The only — only — argument you’ve made thus far that differentiates dog racing from cocaine production is the claim that no pain is caused by dog racing. There are enough reports of racing deaths and injuries to raise real questions about the welfare of the dogs. And funny that while the racing carneys were willing to make up numbers about job losses, they didn’t even try to make up numbers showing that the dogs are cared for. Here’s the balance as I see it:
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p>A few hundred people have to find new jobs in the next 400 days. Many of them — concessionaires, custodial, management — have skills that transfer easily enough.
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p> – v –
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p>-Fewer opportunities for gambling addicts to lose money;
-Less maltreatment of dogs. This is not the rule, but it’s far from an exception.
-Another way (as you point out, many still exist) that the law protects those unable to protect themselves.
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p>I understand that we are choosing different alternatives here. I favor #2, you favor #1.
No – we should not be banning a legitimate, regulated industry. Really, Sab- my point stands; far more dogs are hurt in other industries than in racing, but only racing has been singled out. So why haven’t the dog lovers voted against using dogs in medical experiments? I mean, there really is only one outcome there. Why aren’t the elites screeching about closing down the clinics where doctors perform ghastly experiments? Because the dogs are “humanely euthanized” or because it’s doctors doing the hurting? My brother worked in one of those places for a day…at a very well-known university. No one is picketing that place.
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p>My sense is that the dog tracks were easy pickings. The track owners are near broke. The workers, not wealthy, not lawyered-up, and actually believed that people would care about…people. They were wrong.
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p>And another thing – this is not an industry that I “like.” I don’t patronize dog tracks, horse tracks or car tracks for that matter. It’s not my thing. But what I did have was a number of constituents (as a former city councilor) who worked at a dog track – older, less-skilled people, who are going to have a b**** of a time getting work in this economy. You’re pretty cavalier about the likelihood of these (40-60+ year old) people finding work.
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p>You chose to believe the hysterics of the Question 3 crowd, Sab. I choose to believe the state police, and the people who actually take care of the dogs at the track. I talked to them, I know them, I’ve had coffee at their kitchen table and yes, I feel very badly for them. And yeah, I am g.d. pissed off that the very party that insists on “choice” goes all moralistic and bullycrat on these workers for next to nothing in terms of net gain. The kennels take their dogs to another state. Workers are out of work…and the dog tracks likely go casino, thereby negating any reduction in the rate of gambling or prevention of “addiction.” It’s BS.
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If you want to start a referendum drive to deal with another industry that is harmful to animals, where the greatest human impact is that they have 15 months to find another job, I’ll sign it. No problemo. I’m not “cavalier” about them finding other work, but nor do I buy industry hype that these people are such a desperate group that is unable to confront any challenge.
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p>At this point, this is turning into mere campaign rhetoric for an issue that is resolved. I’m going to stick to the facts and anecdotes at my disposal — what you can call “hysteria” — and you can stick to those facts and anecdotes that you find comforting.
Lets make affordable housing on these sites Or a nice amll with a bloomindales!