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CHICAGO
— As Roxanne prepared to travel to the veterinarian's
office, it became apparent that she had much to learn
about retirement. The brindle greyhound had never seen
stairs before, was frightened of the leash and had to be
hoisted aboard the makeshift bus.
Roxanne's
racing days are over at
Kenosha's
Dairyland Greyhound Park
, which is going out of business
Dec. 31
. The journey to her new life began when
Kari Swanson
of
Sugar Grove, Ill.
, recently picked her up at the park and began preparing
her for adoption.
Swanson
and other greyhound advocates have spent the last few
weeks transporting dogs as they become available to
avoid a last-minute panic when some 600 Dairyland dogs
become suddenly unemployed. Swanson is bracing for a
deluge of these gentle creatures — most of them young,
some injured — who need good homes.
"We
will be stuffed to the gills," said Swanson, whose
nonprofit Midwest Greyhound Adoption opened in 1991.
"There is never a time when we have a slow time,
but we don't always work as crazy as this."
Swanson
has been through several
Wisconsin
track closings, taking in 65 dogs over three weeks when
Geneva Lakes Kennel Club
in
Delavan
closed in 2006. While she takes in greyhounds
year-round, she is now at her busiest, making 180-mile
round trips to
Kenosha
and hauling back dogs in her used shuttle bus.
Dairyland
is the last of five dog tracks left in
Wisconsin
, and when it ceases operations this month, it will
effectively end the state's 20-year history of
parimutuel dog racing.
Greyhound
tracks are illegal in
Illinois
, but at least 23 live tracks remain elsewhere in
the United States
, said Dairyland's executive vice president,
Roy Berger
. Remaining Midwest parks include Mystique in
Dubuque
and
Bluffs Run Greyhound Park
, also in
Iowa
. The most successful dog tracks have added casino games
and gambling. Lacking state approval, Dairyland couldn't
follow suit.
"Stand-alone
greyhound tracks have gone the way of pay phones and
eight-track cassettes," Berger said.
The
Kenosha
track's earnings have gone steadily downhill since 1994,
the year that 900,000 customers visited the track.
Attendance slipped to 233,300 by 2008 and is expected to
drop an additional 19 percent by year's end, Berger
said.
Greyhound
advocates such as Swanson are concerned about whether
track owners will provide temporary housing and care for
the dogs after the last program on
New Year's Eve
.
About 600
of the lean, muscular dogs remain at the track's 12
kennels, overseen by trainers and a veterinarian. The
dogs' private owners may take them home, send them to
race at other parks or euthanize them. Most greyhounds,
though, will be adopted out through organizations such
as Swanson's.
Dairyland
owners have offered incentives to dog owners to move
them out by
Feb. 5
, prompting a call for urgency among greyhound agencies
who say that is not long enough.
Berger
insisted Monday that "the kennel compound will stay
open until every greyhound is placed."
To
prepare for the Dairyland closing, Swanson recently
bought a used shuttle bus for
$9,500
, ripped out the passenger seats and replaced them with
seven secured cages. She houses up to 15 greyhounds at a
time in the kennel she built behind her home,
distributing dogs that have been deemed healthy to 25
Chicago-area foster homes, where they will be prepared
for adoption.
Early one
recent day, she escorted five females, including
Roxanne, into her bus for their visit to the
veterinarian, where they would be spayed. She had
dropped off seven males for neutering the day before.
"Our
job starts where (the racetrack's) ends," said
Sharon Horvat
, of
Plainfield
, who whipped out a photo of her three
"girls," all adopted from racetrack programs.
Greyhound
fanatics describe the dogs as elegant couch potatoes,
spending most of their days lounging. They enjoy being
pampered with soft toys and blankets, and rarely bark.
One misconception is that they require a lot of
exercise, when a daily walk will do. They can be
stubborn and require patience with training, Swanson
said.
Swanson
fell in love with the breed after her beagle mix died.
She adopted Jake, a greyhound who rubbed her face with
his own as an initial greeting, then started up the
association with a friend.
The
former plumber finds greyhound adoption to be a
full-time effort. Midwest Greyhound is one of the few
organizations nationally that accept dogs who have
suffered traumatic injuries. During the races, the dogs
chase mechanical prey, usually a stuffed rabbit, and are
prone to leg injuries.
Each of
the dogs must be "cat-tested" so that a family
pet does not become prey. The greyhounds weigh 55 to 100
pounds, live to be 10 to 15 years old and are more
muscular when used for racing, Swanson said.
They must
be leashed or kept in a fenced yard whenever outdoors,
she warned. The canines run up to 45 mph and can bound
17 feet, rendering an electronic fence ineffective if
something moving catches their attention. It could be a
rabbit — but it could also be a plastic bag whipping
across the lawn on a windy day.
Over the
last 18 years, Swanson figures that she has placed more
than 2,000 dogs in adoptive homes, requiring new owners
to sign a lease that gives her permission to take them
back if they do not take good care of them. That has
happened once or twice, when the dogs kept getting
loose.
"We
need people to be sure to know the commitment it will
take," she said. "It can't be a knee-jerk
reaction."
Roxanne,
for one, is now living with a foster mom,
Marilyn Golz
, whose family shares their
River Grove
home with three of their own greyhounds and three cats.
Roxanne is "terrified of the outside world"
but gets along well with the other pets, she said.
"She
is a loving, sweet little dog. She will be a wonderful
animal for someone. She just needs a loving hand."
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WANT TO
ADOPT?
For more
information, contact Midwest Greyhound Adoption at
630-466-4022 or go to www.midwestgreyhound.org.
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