End greyhound racing in Massachusetts!

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

I am a volunteer for the Committee to Protect Dogs, which is trying to end greyhound racing in Massachusetts. We are looking for volunteers for the petition drive that is starting tomorrow, September 19. If you are interested, please see the information in the LTTE sent to the Lawrence Sun below.

Let's do it for the dogs!

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Letter from:
Rosemarie Tirrell
Chairman for Essex County
The Committee to Protect Dogs

Not many people would disagree with the fact that dogs play an important role in our lives and deserve to be protected from senseless suffering and harm. Throughout the ages, dogs have provided humans with love, companionship and protection as well as service to the handicapped, law enforcement and search & rescue efforts. Dogs have been used to fight the good cause in times of war and most recently we’ve discovered dogs can detect cancer in humans. Yet at two greyhound racetracks in our state, Wonderland Greyhound Racetrack and Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Racetrack, thousands of greyhounds endue lives of nearly endless confinement sheltered in cages barely large enough to let them stand up and turn around for long hours of the day. However confinement and solitude are not the only by-products of greyhound racing.

Thanks to open record laws, track injury documentation is now available to the public therefore we know that 700 dogs have been injured or maimed in the past five years. Also, many succumb to seizures, heart attacks and heat exhaustion resulting in death before the race is even over.
And finally this is a tax-paying issue. In the past three years, the Mass. State Commission has redirected nearly five million dollars into special maintenance funds to keep the aging racetrack facilities alive.

In 2002, animal rights activists were able to place a ballot question before the voters to ban greyhound racing. Supporters of racing outspent the activists four to one yet only won by a margin of three percent. In 2006, the citizens of Massachusetts voted to toughen laws on people who commit crimes against service dogs or engage dogs in the horrendous sport of dog-fighting. It is obvious the people of Massachusetts are demanding change.

The Committee to Protect Dogs asks for your support in the initiative to end the exploitation of greyhounds. In the next few weeks, beginning September 19th, a petition will be available for your signature at your local malls and Petcos. Additionally, animal rights groups will need volunteers to help collect signatures in their own communities to insure the ballot question will be placed before Mass voters.

Please join many animal rights groups throughout the state such as the MSPCA, HSUS and Pro Dog to end this archaic sport forever. For more information visit protectdogs.org, grey2kusa.org or call 1-866-247-3925.


Rosemarie Tirrell
Co-Chairperson
The Committee to Protect Dogs