Just The Facts, Ma’am

In a recently released highly-touted video pseudo-expose′,  the animal rights extremists displayed footage of alleged mass maimings occurring during racing at Massachusetts tracks.  Yes, injuries can and do occur but according to the Massachusetts State Racing Commission’s official records  (in the six years in which these records were kept from 2002 to 2007)  in 465,176 individual greyhound starts at Massachusetts tracks the official injury rate was far less than 1 percent : 0.15% to be exact. Unfortunately, such facts do not keep the extremists’ constant fund-grubbing efforts going as they do not milk the public’s emotions.

Let’s have a look at the dogs exploited in the video, shall we?  Please forgive formatting.

Cawa Harli    
fell                  12/13/07 
next raced      3/14/08
August Extremist Report: laceration inside right rear/ soft wrap
2-3 weeks recovery recommended   (trainer rested her longer)
Harli last raced 9/22/08 at Twin Rivers in Rhode Island

Starz Voice  
injured             6/25/07 
August Extremist Report: severe elbow fractures- euthanized

Phyllissassygirl
injured             9/27/07
next race         10/3/07
August Extremist Report:  No injury report filed so not noted
Last raced 9/23/08 at Palm Beach

WW’s Brave Honor
 fell                  6/8/07 judged okay 6/15/07
next race          6/18/07
August Extremist Report: No injury report filed so not noted
Last raced 8/28/08 at Wonderland (now closed for the season)

Starz Checkers  
two falls:      fell first turn 11/10/07
                     next race      11/14/07
August Extremist Report: No injury report filed so not noted
                     12/19/07 hit rail, fell first turn
                     next race      12/30/07
August Extremist Report:  No injury report filed so not noted
Last raced 9/22/08 at Raynham

Fuzzy’s Spider  
injured           11/14/07 
August Extremist Report: fracture right tibia, prognosis career-ending
Spider has retired and right now has a litter of eight puppies

Cayman Count 
injured          10/14/07
August Extremist Report: right radius/ ulna fractures, prognosis 1 year to career-ending

As you can see, excepting Starz Voice whose injuries were sadly irreparable, most of the dogs from the video returned in very short order to racing and are racing still; two have been retired.  The dogs seem to have been chosen for their dramatic falls- although other animals may have received injuries in races in the time periods listed, they evidently did not fall impressively enough to qualify for the video.  The slow-motion scenes make it look like a massacre has taken place but this is just not the case.  Amusingly, they left the audio portions intact to make this slo-mo hogwash even more surreal.

Oh- some news to share!  The Massachusetts Animal Interest Coalition now has its website up at:
Click Here For The Truth

You can find their campaign funds report at:
http://www.efs.cpf.state.ma.us/DisplayReport.aspx?reportId=85138

and may enjoy comparing it with the extremists’ funds report at:
http://www.efs.cpf.state.ma.us/SearchReportResults.aspx?cpfId=95329

Tags: greyhound racing, greyhounds, question 3