That is why we must work together to end commercial dog racing, a cruel activity in which dogs are used as racing machines to generate gambling profits for wealthy racetrack owners. It is also why we must defeat the latest casino scheme by racetrack owners that is designed to keep their cruel racetrack businesses alive.

Dogs at commercial racetracks live lives of nearly endless confinement. At two racetracks in our state, more than two thousand dogs are confined in small cages barely large enough for them to stand up or turn around for long hours each day.

This photo was taken inside the Lynn Kennel Compound, which houses dogs for Wonderland. [Photo: Wonderland Greyhound Park]

Ironically, the primary release from confinement that these dogs are afforded – the few times per month when they are transferred from the kennel compound to a nearby racetrack to compete – is also wrought with peril. According to the State Racing Commission, over the past four years more than six hundred dogs have been injured while competing at commercial racetracks in Massachusetts, including dogs that suffered broken legs, cardiac arrest, seizures, spinal cord paralysis and a broken neck. Three quarters of these injuries were broken bones.

For years, grassroots volunteers and animal protection organizations have worked to end this cruelty, and are on the verge of achieving this important goal. In 2000, a ballot question to outlaw dog racing was defeated by the narrowest of margins, 51% to 49%. To defeat the proposal, wealthy racetrack owners spent nearly two million dollars on glossy television ads in an attempt to reassure voters that dog racing is somehow humane.

Earlier this year, a ballot question that would have phased out dog racing and strengthened other dog protection laws was poised to go before voters after volunteers collected over 150,000 signatures. However, at the eleventh hour the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the measure could not be voted on due to a legal technicality.

Despite this setback, we are optimistic that voters will be given a chance in 2008 to end this animal cruelty. If they are given a chance, we believe that voters will make the compassionate choice and end commercial dog racing.

Our efforts to end dog racing, though, may be running short of time.

The same wealthy racetrack owners who have profited from this animal cruelty for decades have found a way to try to save their dying businesses: prop them up with casino gambling.

While there is no logical connection between slot machine gambling and commercial dog racing, logic has rarely stopped lobbyists and political insiders on Beacon Hill from writing laws that benefit their clients and campaign contributors. Thus a strange marriage of convenience has been forged on the casino gambling issue: lawmakers will try to give commercial racetracks the exclusive right to operate slot machines, with the caveat that the racetracks will be required by law to continue holding dog races, and if racetrack owners will agree to use millions of dollars in slot machine profits to subsidize dog breeders.

Passing this kind of backwards gambling proposal would not only legalize casino gambling in the Commonwealth, it would also guarantee that the cruelty of dog racing would continue for decades, regardless of whether racetrack owners were profiting from the races themselves or not.

Please help us defeat this cynical gambling proposal. Tell your state lawmakers that you are opposed to propping up dog racing with casino gambling profits. Then join with us to collect signatures for a ballot question in 2008 to end dog racing altogether. The dogs that are now suffering at commercial racetracks in our state don’t have a voice, and are counting on us to speak for them.

For more information on how you can help

www.grey2kusa.org

Carey Theil is executive director, and Christine Dorchak, Esq. is president of GREY2K USA

GREY2K USA is a national non-profit greyhound protection organization with more than 20,000 supporters nationwide. Based in Somerville, the group works to pass greyhound protection laws and defeat attempts to prop up commercial dog tracks.