Dogs Racing

Dog racing are racing trials of speed between the dogs. Now challenged on oval tracks, the sport developed from the ancient practice of coursing, in which specially trained dogs chase game animals in the open field. Whippets chased live rabbits until the protests of humane groups had the practice outlawed. Artificial hares, first tried in 1876 in England, eventually became standard and greyhounds, accustomed to hunting by sight and sound rather than by smell, replaced whippets. The sport became popular in the United States in the 1930s when some states permitted wagering. Dog tracks are popular in Florida, Massachusetts, and some western states as well as in England, Ireland, Australia, Spain, and Indonesia.

Greyhound racing is the sport of racing greyhounds. The dogs chase a lure (customarily, by a tradition, an artificial hare or rabbit) on a track until they arrive at the finish line. The one that arrives first is the winner. In many countries, greyhound racing is purely amateur and conducted for enjoyment. In other countries (particularly the UK, US, Ireland and Australia), greyhound racing is a popular form of gambling, similar to horse racing. There is some popular concern in the aforementioned countries regarding the well-being of the dogs; the effectiveness of industry efforts to address these concerns is controversial. A greyhound adoption movement has arisen to assist retired racing dogs in finding homes as pets.

Current greyhound racing takes its roots from the coursing. The initial recorded attempt at racing greyhounds on a straight track was made beside the Welsh Harp reservoir, Hendon in 1876, but this experiment did not develop. The sport emerged in its recognizable modern form, featuring circular or oval tracks, with the invention of the mechanical or artificial hare in 1912 by Owen Patrick Smith. O.P. Smith had altruistic aims for the sport to stop the killing of the jack rabbits and see "greyhound racing as we see horse racing". The certificates system led the way to parimutuel betting, as quarry and on-course gambling, in the United States during the 1920s. In 1926, armed with the Smith patents and a hand shake, it was introduced to Britain by an American, Charles Munn, in association with Major Lyne-Dixon, a key figure in coursing, and a Canadian, Brigadier-General Critchley. The deal went sour with Smith never hearing from Munn again. Like the American, International Greyhound Racing Association, the In.G.R.A. Munn and Critchley launched the Greyhound Racing Association, and held the first British meeting at Manchester's Belle Vue. The sport was successful in cities and town throughout the U.K. - by the end of 1927, there were forty tracks operating. The sport was particularly attractive to predominantly male working-class audiences, for whom the urban locations of the tracks and the evening times of the meetings were accessible, and to patrons and owners from various social backgrounds. Betting has always been a key ingredient of greyhound racing, both through on-course bookmakers and the totalisator, first introduced in 1930. Like horse racing, it is popular to bet on the greyhound races as a form of parimutuel gambling.

Customarily with many other sports, greyhound racing enjoyed its highest attendances just after the Second World War—for example, there were 34 million paying spectators in 1946. The sport experienced a decline from the early 1960s, when the 1960 Betting and Gaming Act permitted off-course cash betting, although sponsorship, limited television coverage, and the later abolition of on-course betting tax have partly offset this decline.

Greyhound adoption groups often report that the dogs from the tracks have tooth problems the cause of which is debated although it is likely related to damage to the gums from chewing on metal cage bars and effects of the low-quality raw meat they are fed. The groups often also find that the dogs carry tick-borne diseases and parasites due to the lack of proper preventative treatments. The dogs require regular vaccination to minimize outbreaks of diseases like kennel cough.

Not long ago, doping has also emerged as a problem in Greyhound racing. The racing industry is keenly working to prevent the spread of this practice; attempts are being made to recover urine samples from all greyhounds in a race, not just the winners. Greyhounds from which samples can not be obtained for a certain number of consecutive races are subject to being ruled off the track. Violators are subject to criminal penalties and loss of their racing licenses by state gaming commissions and a permanent ban from the National Greyhound Association. The trainer of the greyhound is at all times the "absolute insurer" of the condition of the animal. The trainer is responsible for any positive test regardless of how the banned substance has entered the greyhound's system.

Notably, after the dogs are no longer able to race (as a rule, a greyhound's career will end between the ages of four and six), or as soon as they no longer consistently place in the top four, the dogs' race career ends. The best dogs are kept for breeding purposes. There are both industry-associated adoption groups and rescue groups that work to obtain retired racing greyhounds and place them as pets. In the United Kingdom, according to the BBC, one in four retired greyhounds finds a home as a pet. In the United States, prior to the formation of adoption groups, over 20,000 retired greyhounds a year were euthanized; recent estimates still number in the thousands, with about 90% of National Greyhound Association-registered animals either being adopted, or returned for breeding purposes (according to the industry numbers upwards of 2000 dogs are still killed annually in the US while anti-racing groups estimating the figure at closer to 12,000.). Other greyhounds are either sold to research labs, or sent to foreign racetracks, sometimes in developing countries.

A number of organizations, such as British Greyhounds Retired Database, Adopt-a-Greyhound and Greyhound Pets of America, and the retired greyhound trust try to ensure that as many of the dogs as possible are adopted. Some of these groups also advocate better treatment of the dogs while at the track and/or the end of racing for profit. In recent years the racing industry has made significant progress in establishing programs for the adoption of retired racers. In addition to actively cooperating with private adoption groups throughout the country, many race tracks have established their own adoption programs at various tracks.

A short time ago, some state governments in the United States have passed legislation to get better the treatment of racing dogs in their jurisdiction. During the 1990s seven states banned live greyhound racing, though racing has never been banned in a state that has had active racing. In venues where greyhound racing does not imply gambling, the dogs are just about habitually pets and are, thus, commonly well treated.