First link is an embedded pdf of the Opinion of the Court, the second link is a straight pdf version.
In 2018, Florida voters adopted a Constitutional Amendment banning Greyhound racing in the State of Florida, effective January 1, 2021. The vote margin was 69% to 31%. The amendment also banned any pari-mutual activity related to Greyhound racing.
Several tracks have already closed down ahead of the ban and coronavirus has effectively shut down most of the remaining facilities, probably for good.
Greyhound racing is already banned in 40 States. Alabama’s last Greyhound track just shut down in the last couple of days.
This lawsuit was pretty much a last ditch effort to save a dying sport.
Chief United States District Judge Mark E. Walker of the Northern District of Florida, sitting at Tallahassee, granted the State’s motion to dismiss, stating that none of the arguments raised by the Plaintiffs were plausible and therefore the lawsuit fails for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
So the ban will go into effect on January 1, 2021.
West Virginia will likely enact a ban this year.
I think within the next 5 years, Greyhound racing will cease to exist in the United States.
This is wonderful news. Working as a foster mom with Underdogs, a volunteer rescue organization, I saw first hand the abuse, neglect and horrors of this so called sport. Greyhounds are beautiful creatures with tender dispositions and when placed with the proper homes, become loving pets. I was fortunate to foster 2 different greyhounds and giving them up for their “forever homes” was so hard.
“Without the love of a family” is not abuse. Now I have no doubt there are people who abuse the animals for profit. I do doubt that racing the dogs is in and of itself abuse.
Is it abusive to send a cow dog into a pen after a bull?
I suspect there is abuse of the animals in this sport. Not all owners and trainers, but I have no doubt there are some who do.
I’ll bet the same occurs in horse racing too. Ditto bull riding/rodeo, circus animal training, and other commercial endeavors that involve animals. Some of the charges that get raised by animal activists seems specious, and I believe those only serve to dilute the public’s concern for more egregious issues.
Yup. I doubt there are problems at the champion bull level. Ditto for horse racing, the horses at the elite level are well pampered. Likely so for elite greyhounds, for that matter.
Dogs are kept in cages 23 out of 24 hours a day. Do you doubt that statement?
It’s like show horses. Ever wonder why Tennessee walking horses - horses probably worth many thousands of dollars - lift their forefeet so high when they walk?
I read the posts of you and Guvnah, who believe that the Humane Society and other rescue programs - (NOT PETA, by the way! makes up its facts, and that “elite” animals are treated so much better than the hoi polloi.
So I guess 40 states have banned greyhound racing just because they don’t like to see dogs running around a track.
