Wisconsin

250 GREYHOUNDS FACE UNCERTAIN FUTURE AS MAJOR WISCONSIN DOG TRACK CLOSES
With the closing of the St. Croix Meadows Greyhound Park in Hudson, Wis., Thursday, greyhound protection groups nationwide are scrambling to place as many dogs in homes as possible before a "blacklist'' takes effect that may condemn many ex-racing dogs to death. read more
Source: Hudson, Wisconsin: Business Wire, Aug. 8, 2001

OVER 1,000 WISCONSIN RACING GREYHOUNDS SOLD TO CARDIAC RESEARCH LAB
A Wisconsin kennel operator is being investigated for allegedly diverting over 1,000 greyhounds into research labs, while representing to owners that the dogs had been adopted. Daniel Shonka, a member of the National Greyhound Association (NGA) operates a kennel at the St. Croix Meadows track and runs Greyhound Adoption of Iowa from his home in Cedar Rapids. He allegedly sold the dogs, netting an estimated $500,000 in three years. The state of Wisconsin has much-heralded adoption requirements, but apparently neither the state nor dog owners were checking on the validity of Shonka's adoption efforts. According to the records of the USDA, the dogs were used in experiments involving "pain or distress to the animals."
Source: Greyhound Network News, Summer 2000.

A WISCONSIN KENNEL OPERATOR SOLD MORE THAN 850 RACING GREYHOUNDS TO A CARDIAC RESEARCH LABORATORY WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE DOGS' OWNERS. The situation has brought great embarrassment to state racing officials who have long marketed Wisconsin tracks as no-kill facilities. The kennel operator, who held a USDA Class B dealers license to sell animals to research facilities, also simultaneously operated both an adoption kennel in Iowa and a racing kennel in Wisconsin.
Source: Wisconsin State Journal/Andy Hall and Phil Brinkman, May 14, 2000

THOUSANDS OF GREYHOUNDS BECAME SICK, RESULTING IN 24 DEATHS in 1999, resulting in a quarantine of greyhound tracks nationwide. By mid-February, more than 5,000 racing greyhounds nationwide had contracted kennel cough, a fairly common disease in racing kennels that is easily preventable by an inexpensive, readily available vaccine. A condition later identified as Streptoccocal Toxic Shock Syndrome was the cause of death of at least 24 greyhounds in Florida, Kansas, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. Many of the afflicted dogs appeared relatively healthy only hours before death. Symptoms of the virus were extremely high temperatures and hemorrhaging nasally, rectally and from the urinary tract. GPL Director Susuan Netboy said: "The stress of racing the dogs when they are ill is what makes this otherwise benign kennel cough a killer."
Source: The St. Petersburg Times, The Tampa Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel, Multiple news reports January 9, 1999 through August 4, 1999

180 GREYHOUNDS WERE INJURED IN A THREE MONTH PERIOD at Wisconsin's Dairyland track in 1993. Many of the dogs experienced career-ending injuries including broken legs, hips shoulders and hocks.
Source: The Milwaukee Sentinel/ Steven Walters, September 1993