"In dog racing’s final days, bettors and workers on edge; Slot machine proposal is key to track’s survival" by Christine Legere, Globe Correspondent | December 18, 2009
RAYNHAM - Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park has been on the decline since it set a world record for collecting $240 million in dog racing revenue in one year, back in 1989.
The 69-year-old Raynham track hasn’t been a significant moneymaker for owner George Carney since the 1990s, when casinos and slot parlors began drawing the betting crowd down to Connecticut and Rhode Island.
A statewide ban prohibiting live dog racing goes into effect Jan. 1 and the track announced its last live race is Dec. 26.
Eighty-year-old Elsie Sanford has been coming to the park for 40 years. She even owned some of the dogs that raced there. “I’ll cry when they stop,’’ she said. “I have a lot of great memories here. And where will we all go?’’
Please, go get a life and stop contributing to the abuse of animals.
Attendance at Raynham, where enthusiasts stood 30-deep to watch live racing back in the 1980s, has thinned to small groups of gamblers who track races via simulcast monitors. The elderly, who still come to the park in Raynham daily, tend to prefer live racing. That schedule has been cut back in recent months as kennel owners, in anticipation of the ban, move their dogs to other states....
--more--"Last call to place your bet:
"The final lap for greyhounds in Mass.; Voters spoke, so Raynham to end dog racing today" by Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff | December 26, 2009
The greyhounds will bolt from the gate for the last time in Massachusetts today, marking the end of 75 years of live dog racing in the state.
Voters last year elected by a wide margin, 56 percent to 44 percent, to ban the sport effective Jan. 1, 2010. Wonderland held its last race in September.
Related: Wonderland Loses Its Luster
Raynham Park stages its final race tonight. Both will continue to offer simulcasting - enabling patrons to wager on televised dog and horse races conducted elsewhere - at least through July 31, as a result of recently enacted legislation.
The end of racing here is part of a national trend, driven by a mix of animal-rights concerns, waning attendance at dog tracks, and new statutes enacted by legislatures and voters.
“I just thank Massachusetts voters for giving greyhounds a second chance,’’ said Christine A. Dorchak, president of GREY2K USA, a national advocacy organization based in Somerville that grew out of a 2000 effort to ban racing in Massachusetts, which lost by a razor-thin margin. “We have finally reached this wonderful day.’’
I thought so; Globe didn't.
The last race at Raynham, previously known as Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park, also marks the end of live dog racing in New England, for now at least.
Live racing has ceased in recent years in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and for now Rhode Island - where its future at Lincoln’s financially strapped Twin River is in limbo - and after today will exist at just 23 tracks in seven states, 13 of them in Florida, according to GREY2K. There were 49 tracks in 15 states when GREY2K began in 2001.
Attention now turns to greyhound adoption and to the financial future of the state’s two dog tracks, whose owners hope to stay in business as slot parlors - a possibility that will be debated on Beacon Hill in the coming months, along with the prospect of full resort-casinos.
Here we are, dear fellow citizens.
In the debate over racing, proponents of the ban deemed the sport cruel, calling attention to the cages where the dogs were kept and the 800 injuries suffered by racing greyhounds in the preceding six years. Racing supporters countered that the dogs were well protected and fed, said only a small percentage of dogs were injured, and called the ballot measure a move to put dogs over people, warning of up to 1,000 layoffs.
George Carney, Raynham’s owner, told the Globe earlier this month that he was laying off about one-third of his 600 part-time and full-time employees with the end of live racing but could sustain the full workforce if slot machines were allowed.
I'm tired of being flogged with the jobs s*** at every turn when we have bled jobs for decades.
At the same time, he and others are also mourning the end of an era.
“The more you think about it, the worse the news gets,’’ he said. “So many people have benefited from the track - it’s a hard pill to swallow but you have to take it and move on.’’
Many of the dogs, maintained by a network of kennels, will move on to race in other states, but several hundred will be looking for new homes. Raynham is working with GREY2K and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center to aid their adoption.
“People who voted to end dog racing should step forward now and take a dog home,’’ Dorchak said. “This is the happy ending we all worked for, and these dogs make wonderful pets.’’
Well, I'm a cat person, but the point is RESPECTING LIFE in ALL ITS FORMS!!!
Not exploiting it for per$onal gain.
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And the winner of the final race?
"Gates close on live racing at Raynham; Fans, track staff mourn the end of an era, jobs" by Adam J.V. Sell, Globe Correspondent | December 27, 2009
Lead-outs escorted greyhounds onto the track at Raynham Park yesterday during the last day of live racing. Legislation bans greyhound racing in the state as of Jan. 1 (Photos By Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)
I think the winners are the creatures with the muzzles.
Wouldn't it be grand to put that on an agenda-pushing MSM?
RAYNHAM - Seventy-five years of live dog racing in Massachusetts came to a close yesterday as the former Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park transitions to focusing on simulcast races from other parts of the country.
Patrons and employees, who turned out in massive numbers yesterday, were largely somber....
Maybe if you guys had been showing up on a regular basis....
Behind the tellers’ counter, Karen Roberts looked out on the sea of bettors and remembered when such a large crowd was commonplace. “This is like the ’80s,’’ she said, estimating yesterday’s crowd at 4,000 people.
When we actually had a middle class with some disposable and discretionary income?
Roberts said the track has good attendance when people come to watch broadcasts of the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders Cup horse races, but the final day of dog racing was bigger even than those.
Ken Wagner, who said he had been coming to the track for more than 30 years, compared the last day of live racing to a funeral.
“It’s a terrible thing, not only for the betting, but it’s a social place for seniors. They come here with only twenty bucks, but it’s something to do,’’ he said.....
That is so sad and pathetic.
Louise Coleman, director of Greyhound Friends, said, “It’s unfortunate that the people are being laid off, but the dogs are being laid off, too. Their job is done. We do the best we can to help them,’’ she said.
Christine Dorchak, president of GREY2K USA, said the national advocacy group will work to make sure all of the dogs go to proper homes.
“Now that [the law] has taken effect, now is the time to focus on the greyhounds and help the greyhounds get their second chance.
It’s what we’ve all been working toward for 10 years,’’ she said.I'll bet they love their owners and chase a ball great!
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