Great news from Massachusets and it’s not about Obama! This just came in from one of the campaigners to close the state’s 2 dog tracks. Erica Mueller reports.
‘Massachusetts voters approved the ballot initiative to phase out greyhound racing at the state’s 2 dog tracks by January 2010. I was very active on the Steering Committee for the first attempt, in 2000, at which time we lost by 2% of the vote.
This time, the Greyhounds won by a 12% margin. Certain other states have laws prohibiting the establishment of dog racing
– these were enacted either before any tracks were created, or after existing tracks had already gone out of business.
Massachusetts marks the first time in the U.S. that operating tracks will be forced to close by law. It is a great victory for the hounds, and hopefully one that will be repeated in other states.
I am not by nature someone to whoop, holler, and cheer aloud, so my 3 greyhounds were rather puzzled last night as I watched the televised election results. The boys, who raced in New Hampshire, weren’t sufficiently interested to get up off the sofas, but Dinah, a survivor of the doggie Dachau that is the dilapidated kennel complex for Boston’s Wonderland track, gently laid her head in my lap, with a look of concern – she must have thought I was shrieking in pain rather than joy! Cheers, Erica Mueller’