HazyWal

Doesn't have to be a Saturday Don post away for any oldie in need on any day. Gorgeous old sweetheart!! Hmmm from what I've heard Hobart RSPCA is not the best :/ I could be wrong...Maddy??

Oh I'm glad you like it Perse :) It was quite breathtaking to me but to some I would guess it just looks like half a skinny greyhound :/

This just came up on my newsfeed on FB and I think it's quite haunting but beautiful. It's certainly different. Photo by Hazeltree Pet Portraiture.

Stunning! Is that a houseboat on the river Perse?

Did you even read my post?

Very interesting to me Steve that the current system encourages the turnover of dogs. That is the first time I have seen it spelled out clearly in that light. As for the next bit I bolded, I'd actually prefer breeders, owners and trainers to be an important part of the rehoming process where possible. Rehoming may not be their core business but they sure as hell know the dogs in their care better than anyone and could at least share that knowledge to save time, money and unsuitable dogs being in shelters or foster care. So how do we share our concerns publicly without the people who have the dogs and are doing nothing wrong with them feeling judged and alienated? This is industry wide, but as we have read in this thread, not every owner, breeder or trainer supports it or does it. I find it sad but not surprising that rescue and racing do not get on well as a whole. They exist for different reasons. But human nature being as it is, when people try to hide what they are doing it makes people more suspicious. And I guess too when there is so much money in the gambling industry (as opposed to the pockets of breeders, owners and trainers) it seems wrong to impose their excess dog problem onto rescue. I hope some goals to address the key issues over a sustainable period of time will come about so less healthy dogs are placed at risk. Greyhound rescue is a whole nother ball game. *repeating myself for the 1000th time* greyhounds are still not up there in the family pet stakes. So lets say the average family decide on a rescue dog, we have Labs and Cockers for a family pet with the kids, cattle dogs for the farm, maybe Aussies for agility, a bull breed for the work truck, who actually says lets get a greyhound? Still not many people I guarantee that and unless you are involved in GR you have no idea, bottom line. You can't not alienate the good trainers because they are all lumped in the same box by the nutters, the keyboard warriors whose total experience with greyhounds is seeing one walk past their house one day O.o I see it time after time on greyhound rescue pages where trainers try to say that their dogs are well looked after and they get squashed like a grape by the most disgusting comments like "yeah bullshit, I hope you break your legs and die you scum like what you do to your dogs" Do you know the amount of decent trainers that have contacted programmes like 4 Corners and The Project to ask them to come to their training facilities and show the other side? Nah they're not interested. GRDBOIT posted a pic of greyhound puppies at a fence with the caption "where have the puppies gone?" Outrage and venom was spat until the trainer from SA actually posted on it and said " hey that is my training facility and you have stolen a photo off my public page to beat your drum! how dare you" Within 2 minutes tops it was gone, deleted. Greyhound racing in this country will never stop, racing be it horses or dogs is a billion dollar industry and people need to understand that and work together, not that I think it will ever happen in my lifetime. Off to hug my greyhounds.

Yes definetely no men and she hates other dogs too...god love her :laugh: She's so damn cute though!

I listed her in the Saturday Senior thread last week, she needs a special kind of home, no men, cats, kids so it may take a while. She's all over group FB pages down here in Melbs it'll just be a matter of time.

I had a look at the prices of the other dogs there and.. In somewhat related news.. Grace (our oldy from a few pages back) has gone on trial with a family. No adoption fee (or even request of a donation), I'm just happy for her to have her own home. Woo hoo greyt news for Grace Maddy! Fingers crossed her trial is successful

Labadore with respect, and believe me my patience is running out, you have absolutely NFI what goes on with greyhounds, by your own admission. You are questioning people like myself and Maddy that have been at the coalface for many years. You don't want to listen and you don't want to learn...why?

There will be many around Cessnock/Maitland. A majority of greyhounds FTGH are advertised from the Hunter and Central Coast areas.

The trouble with gambling is that it is mostly done by people who can't afford it. Pokie money mostly comes from pensioners. And the TAB near where I lived was always full of old men - even during working hours. They all moved outside when they banned smoking inside but they still stayed there all day. They didn't look "wealthy" to me. It's one thing to buy an occasional lotto ticket (also sold to mostly poor people) but to be in the TAB all day every day - can't be good for the bottom line unless you're the TAB. And online betting makes it way too easy. Don't even have to go sit with the smelly blokes to make a bet any more. Correct, my father is a prime example. Although he's not smelly O.o he sits in the TAB all day spending every cent of his age pension on the punt, anything, dogs horses, trots he'll back it chasing that ever elusive big win. He had to sell his house many years ago due to gambling debts and he now rents his own house. He has nothing, is on the bones of his arse yet he's there every day without fail. I was a barmaid for most of my working life and watched people spend every cent they had on a daily basis on the races or the pokies. This is a photo of Phar Lap winning the 1930 Melbourne Cup, in the depression. Note the crowd, thousands of people with no jobs and no money to feed their families yet they flocked to the track in their droves. That 70% of the population are the ones that punt the hardest.

Looks great, love the name of the café Hope it was a successful day :)

:laugh:

Yes I agree. My local pound back home usually only charge $100 for a senior and that's after they've spent a lot on dentals and whatever else is needed. Like it or not a lot of people will look at a dog that age and that price and will think hhmmmm nope it'll die soon anyway. Sad but true I'm afraid.

Ah ok thanks Talie. I don't really like opening links that have no clear explanation of what's in there.

What's Dog H B C mean? :/

The SP bookie would be back big time m-j. I have said this many times but my father was a bookie, a legal one and my brother and I grew up at the track. When kids would ask us if we went to Luna Park we'd say no but we've been to Harold Park, Wentworth Park, Menangle Park I was also a barmaid pretty much my whole working life, we had an SP at the Bowling Club I worked at that even had his own odds board, the old wooden ones with the turning handles and he'd take bets at the phone at the bar, no mobiles back then. People here think I have no idea but I've been in this game for over 50 years, this aint my first rodeo.

Not everyone that likes a drink is a drunk O.o I drink but I'm not a falling over forget to feed my dogs put them in danger kind of drinker. If Don was not happy I wouldn't have even offered cat biscuits, I would've told them to leave the dog alone or leave.

Yes I was at the vet about 3 months ago and a greyhound breeder bought in 8 dogs to be PTS and said they would prefer to do that than go anywhere near rescue.Turns out they also breed GSD and do the same with their ex breeders rather than have any attention on them for not keeping them. It happens all the time. The two biggest rescues in NSW, not GAP, are loathed by a large majority of trainers. Seems to me that if you want more breeders to hand over dogs to rescue for rehoming rather than quietly asking the vet to PTS then you cant have a situation where the people who are doing what you ask are beaten up and judged etc. Got it in one Devils advocate here - but there have been many times in the general pound/shelter situation whereby pounds are doing the wrong thing, rescues try and work with them and help them improve their practices with absolutely no joy and end up having to go public to finally bring about change. It's a legitimate technique if it's done well (note: death threats are not doing it well), but I guess in that case you're dealing with a government run facility that must account for the animals in their care, as opposed to individuals like Greyhound trainers that can just quietly take their dogs to the vet. Another reason why the industry is unsalvageable. Many many more Greyhounds than 15k per year would be killed? Really? I find that very hard to believe. m-j has a valid point. Yes there are serious welfare issues within the industry today but nothing like there was back in the 60's and if it was forced underground there would be zilch, nada, no one would have a clue how many dogs were bred and as for welfare? out the door. It would be hidden and become an urban myth like dog fighting is. "Nah doesn't happen, greyhound racing was banned years ago!" Australians are a nation of gamblers whether you like it or not, you only have to look at the crowds at the races in the depression. If you think it wouldn't be worse you're dreamin'.

But see that's where the hatred of GAP by the anti extremists makes no sense to me. GAPVIC alone rehomed 538 greyhounds last year, how the hell can you (not you personally) think that's a bad thing because they are funded by the racing industry? To me that's 538 bums on seats...or greys on couches. The greyhound industry didn't have to start an adoption programme, damned if they do damned if they don't.

GAP are industry funded and have fairly strict testing procedures in place therefore loathed by the "save em all" groups. According to a lot (not all) of the "rescue" groups every single greyhound should be rehomed. This is not only stupid but dangerous, as it is with any breed. When you work hard at promoting a breed that is still not a popular choice for a family pet by any stretch rehoming every grey does the breed no favours at all. They don't see it that way though and god forbid you say otherwise. Oh yes. There seems to be a very clear divide in greyhound rescue- those who are sensible, test the dogs and rehome appropriately and on the other side, those who email death threats to trainers, rehome greyhounds that would kill small dogs and generally damage the reputation of the breed by rehoming anything that moves. I've been viciously targeted by the latter and I'm a rescuer. I'd hate to think how they treat trainers or breeders. Yes we have both been targeted and still are, only happened to me yesterday. What people don't understand is not only is it hard to promote greyhounds as pets the clear divide you mentioned is yet another obstacle that we deal with, there is no middle ground. We don't work together it will always be us and them, it's pathetic really.

GAP are industry funded and have fairly strict testing procedures in place therefore loathed by the "save em all" groups. According to a lot (not all) of the "rescue" groups every single greyhound should be rehomed. This is not only stupid but dangerous, as it is with any breed. When you work hard at promoting a breed that is still not a popular choice for a family pet by any stretch rehoming every grey does the breed no favours at all. They don't see it that way though and god forbid you say otherwise.

Because certain nutjob "rescue" groups give all of rescue a bad name by encouraging their supporters to harass trainers, spreading misinformation about the industry and treating everyone involved in the industry as if they were all monsters. It got so bad that even just being neutral on the racing issue is enough to get you abusive messages and death threats. If you were a greyhound trainer, would you invite someone onto your property to collect a dog if you knew they were probably packing a hidden camera and preparing resources to later raid your kennels and/or home? You can't call someone a murdering monster and then expect them to be willing to work with you. The abuse I copped was horrendous, despite the fact that I rehomed responsibly and had/have contributed to Greyhound rescue with $, food and donations for years. Was your experience with GAP or some other greyhound rescue. I would have thought that with GAP being a greyhound racing industry initiative that they would receive the majority of greyhounds to be rehomed from owners/trainers as the owners/trainers would be more comfortable dealing with an adoption program initiated by their own industry. GAP are lovely to deal with, I did have a dog on the GAP list but rehomed before a place became available. One particular Sydney based rescue can only be described as absolute nut jobs with many followers with many screws loose God yes and the disciples follow along blindly in some sort of trance. Don't ever question them though or you will be attacked, been there done that.

Yes I was at the vet about 3 months ago and a greyhound breeder bought in 8 dogs to be PTS and said they would prefer to do that than go anywhere near rescue.Turns out they also breed GSD and do the same with their ex breeders rather than have any attention on them for not keeping them. It happens all the time. The two biggest rescues in NSW, not GAP, are loathed by a large majority of trainers. Seems to me that if you want more breeders to hand over dogs to rescue for rehoming rather than quietly asking the vet to PTS then you cant have a situation where the people who are doing what you ask are beaten up and judged etc. Correct. Their stupidity is actually killing more dogs, they don't see it that way though. Too busy high fiving each other.