Tuesday February 22, 2011
Injuries at dog track a worry
Animal welfare official says Nitro facility has highest number for single track
Officials with animal welfare organizations said they are deeply concerned about the number of injuries over the past six years at Mardi Gras racetrack.
More than 3,200 injuries were reported at the Nitro track from the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2010, an average of about 1.4 injuries per day, records filed with the West Virginia Racing Commission show.
At least 152 dogs suffered injuries that were so severe they had to be euthanized. At least seven died as a result of illnesses contracted in the kennels.
“In terms of the raw number of injuries, this is the largest we have seen for a single track by far,” said Carey Theil, executive director of Grey2K USA, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit working to outlaw greyhound racing.
Ann Church, a greyhound racing specialist with the ASPCA, called the numbers “appalling.” The ASPCA also opposes the dog racing industry as a whole.
“When I first heard the numbers, I assumed they were for both tracks in the state, not just the one,” she said.
But injuries have dropped over the past two years. And officials at the track claim that the average number of injuries per racing start is well within the national average, a claim that could not immediately be verified.
For example, there were 25 deaths in 2010, compared to 43,440 total racing starts. That means that deaths resulted in only 0.0006 percent of total racing starts last year.
“If you compared these numbers to the NFL or even horse racing, this would be a very low percentage,” said Dan Adkins, who serves as the president of Hartman Tyner, the company that owns the track.
He has said repeatedly that the health and safety of the dogs at Mardi Gras is his No. 1 concern.
But Theil is unimpressed by the comparison of injuries to the total number of racing starts. Only about 2,000 dogs race at the track each year, but they race over and over again.
Theil said that kind of number crunching is intended to make the number of injuries seem less severe.
“Injury” can mean anything from a broken leg to a broken nail. But about 750 of the injuries reflected in the records were broken bones.
More than 300 of the injuries were listed as “career-ending,” meaning that the injured dog was never able to race again.
But Theil emphasized the issue is not just about numbers.
He said it is about individual dogs whose lives were cut short because of an industry based on gambling and entertainment.
“Each one of them had a name,” he said.
Records give details on dogs like Freda Design, a 1-year-old black greyhound owned by Tomblin Kennels. Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s mother, Freda Tomblin, owns Tomblin Kennels.
Freda Design was put down on Halloween 2010 after she was bumped by another dog and suffered a broken leg during a race.
Another dog, a 1-year-old black greyhound named Elmer Comer died after he finished a race on April 14, 2010 and then suffered a “cardiovascular event.”
On Jan. 4, 2008, a 1-year-old brindle named Moving Marla was euthanized after she fell during a race and was then run over by other dogs, breaking her legs in several places.
Stop Greyhound Racing 
Bill would end Greyhound dog racing but assist owners, kennels
If state lawmakers agree to let casinos end live dog racing in Iowa, greyhound owners and kennels would be paid a “soft landing” fee and the state treasury would get an extra $10 million a year, according to a proposed bill.
Legislators now face a decision: Should they accept cash to let casinos off the hook for their obligation to subsidize dog racing? Or keep dog racing going for the sake of the economic boost from the dog-breeding industry?
This is the second straight year that Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. has lobbied to get out of a state law that’s become increasingly expensive for the casino company as consumer interest in dog racing dwindles.
The bill would affect Harrah’s track in Council Bluffs and the city-owned dog track in Dubuque.
Three senators assigned to study the bill agreed Thursday to advance it.
But one, Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, said he won’t support the bill unless it requires Iowa’s two racetrack-casinos to make a combined yearly $10 million payment in license fees indefinitely.As written, the bill calls for the payments to the state’s general fund to end after seven years.
Hatch said he also would like answers on how this would affect the Dubuque casino and the greyhound industry in general.
Senate Study Bill 1064 would let the two racetrack-casinos discontinue live dog races but continue wagering on simulcast dog races. It would boost the license fee for the Dubuque dog track to $3 million a year for the next seven years, and the license fee for the Council Bluffs track would be $7 million.The bill also would create a “greyhound owners and kennels retirement fund” under the control of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. Money would come from a state fund that by law promotes dog racing and from purse money the casinos would have paid out.
Asked his thoughts, Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said Thursday: “I haven’t even looked at that piece of legislation yet.”
A lobbyist for Harrah’s, Jim Carney, told the subcommittee members that only seven states continue to race dogs. “Dog racing is simply dead,” he said. “I mean, that’s a fact.”The live handle, the amount of money consumers wagered at both tracks, has dropped from $7.3 million in 2008 to $6.2 million last year, according to racing and gaming commission records. That’s a 15 percent drop, he pointed out.
A lobbyist for the greyhound industry, Don Avenson, countered: “It’s a growing industry.”
Avenson said Iowa’s racing and breeding industry employed about 800 people in 2003, and now employs 1,237, according to a study by Iowa State University professor Dan Otto.David Robinette, who owns Plum Creek Kennel in Elliott, said he has raced dogs for 30 years. He said he and his wife and five children moved to Iowa in 1998 because of the state’s racing program.