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Greyhounds can't outrun hard truth By M. Daniel Gibbard Tribune staff reporter
Sat Nov 5, 9:40 AM ET



The gates at Geneva Lakes Greyhound Track snap open and the dogs rush out in a blur of bobbing snouts and flying legs.



But their speed belies the truth: The dog racing industry in Wisconsin has ground nearly to a halt.

The Delavan track, one of two remaining in the state, is closing after Sunday following years of sliding attendance and wagering. More than 250 people will be out of jobs and as many greyhounds will be homeless, track officials said.

The track's plight highlights Wisconsin's losing bet on five dog racing tracks, which officials approved in 1989. While Indian casinos, which followed shortly afterward, have thrived, Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha is the sole survivor among the tracks.

As business winds down, Geneva Lakes has focused on finding homes for the sleek racers, a regular part of the industry as dogs retire.

In a typical year, the track adopts out about 200 dogs. But this time around, track officials and advocates are sounding the alarm because of the sheer volume of dogs that need to be adopted in a few months.

"We need adoption groups nationwide to pitch in, to help pick up some of these dogs," said Kathy Urzedowski of Greyhounds Only, a Chicago-area shelter and adoption agency. "We need people who have possibly thought about adopting a greyhound into their home to give it some really serious consideration."

Wisconsin does not allow euthanasia unless a greyhound is badly injured or sick, and it closely monitors the fate of the dogs through the state Division of Gaming. Dogs can begin running at 18 months and generally retire by age 5.

At the track's height, there were perhaps 1,000 racers in its kennels, Roth said, but that has probably dwindled to 850 or so, said Milt Roth, general manager of Geneva Lakes. About 600 will go to other tracks or to breeding farms, but 250--mostly the oldest and slowest--will need new homes.

"The owners don't want to take them back for whatever reason," Roth said. "Some of them are not suitable for breeding or they aren't fast enough to go to another track. It's our moral obligation to help them out."

The Geneva Lakes track has been adopting out about a dog a day for the last month, and by agreement with the state, its kennels will remain open until all the greyhounds are gone, said Pam Niemuth, who heads the track's adoption program.

Niemuth and assistant Tammi Smith get the dogs ready to become pets, including house-breaking them and walking them around a mock living room to get them acclimated to stairs and furniture. Adopters must pass a background check and pay $170, which covers neutering and all vaccinations.

Smith, 28, has worked at the track since she was a teenager and will miss the dogs: Cool Run--whom she nicknamed Beaner--Keyocera, Jelly, Malikye, and hundreds more.

"It makes me want to cry," said the tattooed and tough-looking Smith. "If I sit and think about it for more than 40 seconds, I get real emotional. It tears my heart apart."

Perhaps surprisingly, greyhound lovers say, the dogs are not prone to tearing around homes or yards at top speed. In fact, the animals are so lazy in retirement they're known affectionately as 40-m.p.h. couch potatoes.

"The dogs really do make great pets," Roth said. "They're high-strung athletes when they're athletes, but after that ... most of the time they just lie around and watch television."

In 1989, Wisconsin legislators approved licenses for five greyhound tracks in an effort to boost state revenues.

Geneva Lakes, a $22 million state-of-the-art facility, opened with great fanfare on May 25, 1990. Nearly 5,000 people crowded in to watch, with then-Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson leading the VIP list.

In that first year, 662,000 spectators came to the track, and wagers totaled more than $58 million. But after peaking in 1991, the track, like others in the state, began to slide.

By 2004, attendance had dropped to 156,000 gamblers, and the handle, or wagering total, was $24 million. This year's figures are down another 5 percent to 10 percent, Roth said, and the track expects to lose $3.5 million.

Roth blames state politics and Gov. Jim Doyle for the track's demise.

In July, Doyle vetoed a bill that would have allowed dog tracks to have touch-screen video-simulcast machines on which bets can be placed on horse or dog races across the country. The track's owners decided to close the track after the veto, Roth said.

Meanwhile, Indian casinos have boomed, and several years ago, they expanded their gambling options, once restricted to slot machines and a few table games, over the objections of the dog-racing industry.

Some industry experts, however, blamed the decline in dog racing on the sport itself.

"You don't get the serious bettor like you do with horse racing," said Bill Thompson, a professor and gaming expert at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who sees a grim future for the industry. "You can't track dogs as scientifically as you can horses. The serious dog racer is just betting on [colors] and favorite names."

Casinos almost certainly have hurt, especially because of slot machines, said Anthony Lucas, an author on gaming and assistant professor at UNLV.

"With progressive payouts, you can change your life for $1.25," Lucas said. "That's a tough thing for dog tracks to compete against."

Kenosha's Dairyland track has suffered as well. Attendance slipped to 355,000 in 2004, from 1.5 million in 1991, and the handle sagged to $67 million from $170 million in 1991.

"It's a very unfriendly environment in Wisconsin, with Native American gaming," said Roy Berger, Dairyland's executive vice president.

The track is likely to be sold to an Indian tribe that wants to build a giant casino on the site, Berger said. Whether dog racing would continue after the sale is uncertain, he said.

An industry group, the Greyhound Racing Association of America, says the sport is on solid footing although attendance is down because bettors are wagering online. The group says casino games are needed to get people out to the tracks.

There are three dozen tracks operating in 12 states, and wagers total $2 billion a year, the group said.

Geneva Lakes has 185 employees, and 65 trainers and others work there independently, Roth said. Some staffers will be kept on as the track remains open as a simulcast betting center through the end of the year, but many will be looking for work Monday.

Part-time tellers started at $8 an hour, but others at the track made up to $70,000 a year, Roth said.

Some of the trainers, like Darryl Munkres, 34, will move to Dairyland Park. Others will retire or move to Florida, which has more than a dozen tracks.

"It's not really a job. It's more like a lifestyle, because these greyhounds depend on you," Munkres said.

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READER CONNECTION: Would you like to learn more about adopting a greyhound?

Call Geneva Lakes Greyhound Track at 262-728-8000 or visit http://www.genevagreyhounds.com/adoption/adoption.html.

Or call Greyhounds Only at 847-421-9828 or visit http://www.greyhoundsonly.com.