As the ball dropped in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, 2020, in addition to being the end of a very turbulent year, the practice of greyhound racing in the state of Florida came to an end thanks to Amendment 13, when the Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach ran its last race.
All the more reason to celebrate, according to those who worked tirelessly for more than a decade — including advocacy groups such as The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Grey2KUSA Worldwide and even the Doris Day Foundation, to end this century-old “sport,” which its opponents characterize as antiquated, out of touch, inhumane, and down-right cruel.
A fixture in Florida since 1931, the state was the largest state to have greyhound racing, with 13 tracks at its peak in the 1980s. Currently, tracks remain for now only in three states – West Virginia, Arkansas, and Iowa.
Kate MacFall, Florida state director for the HSUS, says, “The issue of greyhound racing has been put to rest in the state of Florida. We’re very pleased that the amendment was created, placed on the ballot, and passed by almost 70 percent of the voters in Florida.”
MacFall notes that her group, along with other animal rights organizations, worked tirelessly and diligently on this issue to raise awareness for more than 10 years. She says greyhound racing fell out of favor with constituents and attendance dropped at the venues.
“We brought this issue front and center to the public,” she says,
“and they responded.”
“When voters heard that these dogs were dying and spent their days confined in small cages, got frequent injuries, and were living sad lives, it was a no brainer,” MacFall said from her office in Tallahassee.
Now that this issue has been put to rest, MacFall is focusing her agency’s efforts on retail stores in Florida selling puppies from out-of-state puppy mills.
It is estimated there are more than 10,000 puppy mills operating in the U.S. and two million puppies are sold each year from these mills. Noting that the HSUS is not going after responsible breeders, MacFall says, “We’re working to create a more humane model and moving away from retail and storefront sales of these puppies.”
The non-profit, Grey2KUSA Worldwide, and the chief sponsor of Amendment 13, which passed 69 percent to 31 percent on Nov. 6, 2018 and was designed to prohibit dog racing and close down the twelve remaining tracks in Florida.
Flagler Greyhound Park in Miami closed before the vote, seeing the writing on the wall.
Carey Theil, executive director of Grey2KUSA Worldwide, which is based in Arlington, MA, said there were systemic problems within the racing industry and called them out for their treatment of the animals.
He says the racing dogs were kept confi ned in small, stacked cages for 20-23 hours a day and fed a diet of raw 4-D meat, (meat derived from dying, diseased, disabled, and dead livestock). He says that over the past decade, over 400 greyhounds tested positive for a variety of drugs and when let out of their cages to race, many were injured or even died.
In 2018, when 11 tracks were operating in the state, a Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) report revealed that a greyhound died every three days.
At the sport’s peak in 1991, according to a report in the Tampa Bay Times, Americans wagered $3.5 billion at tracks across 19states. By 2018, the amount had fallen below $500 million. , not everyone agreed with the impetus to shut down the tracks and the industry, including the American Kennel Club, the NRA, and the Farm Bureau. Many racing families had been in the business for generations and lost their livelihood.
Boynton Beach resident, Barbara Masi, was not in favor of shutting down the industry and blames out of state lobbying interests for closing down the tracks.
President and founder of Awesome Greyhound Adoptions, a volunteer-run, nonprofi t agency dedicated to fi nding homes for retired racing greyhounds, Masi also runs a program called Hounds & Heroes which provides retired racing greyhounds to veterans as full service dogs.
“These are not emotional support animals or therapy dogs, but fully trained service dogs,” she says. “They can help veterans with mobility issues, or those with MS, brain injury, PTSD, and Parkinson’s Disease. We call them “battle buddies,” and they are allowed full access to restaurants, buildings, and airplanes. They cannot be refused.”
She has been placing trained greyhound service dogs with veterans since 2011 and says, “Greyhounds sleep a lot and make the most awesome pets.”
Each dog trains for approximately 6-8 months to become a full-service dog and Masi says she currently has 11 dogs in training.
All the racing dogs here in Florida have been placed, Masi says, or are with adoption approved groups across the U.S. waiting to find homes. Others have gone on to race in other states.
And while Thiel and Masi are on opposite sides of the racing issue, Thiel credits Masi with helping the dogs and says “she does great work.”
Theil says that in Florida, both sides made their cases known, and disparate political interests joined together, even former governor and senator Rick Scott (R) and former mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum (D) were united in their opposition to the tracks.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” he says about the outcome of the vote. “Floridians love dogs.”
“This is a victory for Florida and a victory for everyone who cares about the dogs,” says Theil. “We are working to put ourselves out of business – that would be a good day.”