Sunday, October 21, 2012
Posted in
Cawbourne Snowy
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GAP
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Royal Aker
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I have been planning to post this video for a while now but always run out of time somehow.
So here it is finally: Senso's Mum sent me this video a while back -thanks a million Milena!
This race video is of my beautiful Cobby (Cawbourne Snowy) and Senso (Royal Aker) racing in Auckland, before they retired :) This was a couple of years back :)
Also, famous Blondie from Wairarapa (Fancy Kate) is in this race and finishes fourth. Bonnie (All In One) is in this race too -she is now retired in Wellington. Senso won, Cobby came third. Well Cobby led pretty much most of the way, but my boy was not a crafty racer :)
All of them have one thing in common tho - they all had the best time.
This is what pure joy looks like:
And here are the boys today:
And Senso (Royal Aker) has become an accomplished model (unlike Cobby!) and he was the face of the Canine Flaxseed Oil product last year, here are his pictures:
PS: I did not want to waste my time on it initially, but I decided to put a few notes about the latest TV3s attempt at attacking the greyhounds and their love of racing in last night's '60 Minutes' programme.
To be happy, a greyhound needs to race and chase a lure - it is a genetic need present in this breed of dog that I adore. Furthermore -there is actually a higher chance of a greyhound getting injured running around a park, beach, farm, forrest etc than a track. Such places are uneven, have hidden obstacles and can trip a dog. Going at the speed greyhounds have, they can be severely injured at any time they're exercising -anywhere. I speak from experience -one of the most frequent questions I get via this blog is regarding injuries of PET GREYHOUNDS.
Yes, my retired greyhounds got hurt many times while running at the beach. Some owners opt to keep them on lead at all times - I don't. Yes, my greyhound Cobby (Cawbourne Snowy), who had no racing injuries, hurt himself terribly while running at Tangimoana beach, after he retired. He cut the webbing of his foot on a seashell,which resulted in surgery under general anaestetics, having toe webbing cut off, stitched and foot bandaged, followed up by a lengthy recovery period. Did I enjoy this? No. Would I let him run there again? Yes - absolutely. Some people might not agree - but I believe in QUALITY of life for animals, and them doing what they love and enjoy. This is only one example -there are numerous ones out there.
Back to the sad excuse for the investigative journalism segment, unfortunately, NZ Greyhound Racing was not served by having a quiet gentle old chap as its spokesman, when all that was needed was someone able to brush aside the idiotic criticism of a very biased journalist. In his defence, Jim Leach was visibly shaken by the fact that the one race recorded with the journalist was one where a greyhound broke its leg and was put down.
It is also very telling that a sad excuse for a journalist was so incredibly biased that she did not even mention GAP (Greyhounds As Pets) adoption programme. It is truly unbelievable and so nasty but makes sense. GAP has been established and is largely funded by the racing industry - the biased reporter could not afford to mention that really, it would not work as part of her biased message she was trying to put accross to unsuspecting viewers.
The move for the mockumentary was that a clown by the name of Aaron Cross believes that greyhound racing is cruel and should be banned. If it was not ridiculous, it would be sad.
People like Aaron Cross live for their 15 minutes of fame. I feel he would be much better served if he tried to do something about the tens of thousands of pets dogs and cats put down each year by animal shelters and SPCAs. And that's tens of thousands every year, in NZ alone. Why no disgust at that? Oh wait -there is no publicity in that. That has been done many times over, by Tom, Dick and Jerry, with no big results.
Majority of dogs euthanised in this country are unwanted household pets, non-greyhound breeds. The statistics are easy to find and the SPCA for one regularly publishes their figures. In their case the number exceeds 30,000. Also the number of cruelty and attack cases prosecuted are without doubt, non greyhound related. Pet owners population in general own the absolute worst statistics in relation to animal welfare. Puppy mills are rife, supplying pet shops, where people buy the puppies.
Working dogs and pedigee dogs have been all but destroyed by breeders, sad shadows of their ancestors, ridden with genetical deformities, bad hips, unable to breathe because of exeggerated flat nose, bulging eyes etc, to name just a few of the health problems that affect their lives. Even if they are healthy, they are stuck in back yards and lucky to get any exercise, let alone exercise that their breed needs and requires.
I don't want to see the day when people would have to do a hip score on a greyhound. That would be the end of this amazing breed as we know it. And guess what? For show greyhounds overseas (non-racing ones), hip scores are ALREADY done. No surprise there. :( We have seen it all before, with other working breeds, who have been all but butchered on the hands of breeders.
Racing greyhound is beautifully bred for work, for solid confirmation - hip scores do not even exist for racing greyhounds. They would make no sense; racing dogs are bred beautifully, to be solid and healthy. Genetic defects are bred out. This is the way it should be, for any dog breed.
As we all know, retired racing greyhounds make WONDERFUL pets for today's pet owners due to their nature, temperament and low exercise requirement - that is for me, the most important message. Sadly, the reporter on this show called them 'powerful beasts with huge prey drive -you would not want them running after you'. After SUCH description -who would want to adopt one?! What upsets me the most is that this biased reporter did not say ONE WORD about GAP and what lovely pets retired racers make. So sad - and so biased. I feel sorry for the reporter in some bizarre way -it must be awful to be that sort of a person.
But at the end of the day -we will race and love our doggies, both racing and retired ones. And at the end of the day, truth will prevail and publicity-seeking clowns and biased reporters will be exposed for what they are.
Greyhounds love to race - let them race. And then adopt a retired one
x x x
I have been planning to post this video for a while now but always run out of time somehow.
So here it is finally: Senso's Mum sent me this video a while back -thanks a million Milena!
This race video is of my beautiful Cobby (Cawbourne Snowy) and Senso (Royal Aker) racing in Auckland, before they retired :) This was a couple of years back :)
Also, famous Blondie from Wairarapa (Fancy Kate) is in this race and finishes fourth. Bonnie (All In One) is in this race too -she is now retired in Wellington. Senso won, Cobby came third. Well Cobby led pretty much most of the way, but my boy was not a crafty racer :)
All of them have one thing in common tho - they all had the best time.
This is what pure joy looks like:
And here are the boys today:
 |
| Cobby - nowadays his favourite pastime is posing and looking beautiful.... . |
 |
| ...and sleeping :) . |
PS: I did not want to waste my time on it initially, but I decided to put a few notes about the latest TV3s attempt at attacking the greyhounds and their love of racing in last night's '60 Minutes' programme.
To be happy, a greyhound needs to race and chase a lure - it is a genetic need present in this breed of dog that I adore. Furthermore -there is actually a higher chance of a greyhound getting injured running around a park, beach, farm, forrest etc than a track. Such places are uneven, have hidden obstacles and can trip a dog. Going at the speed greyhounds have, they can be severely injured at any time they're exercising -anywhere. I speak from experience -one of the most frequent questions I get via this blog is regarding injuries of PET GREYHOUNDS.
Yes, my retired greyhounds got hurt many times while running at the beach. Some owners opt to keep them on lead at all times - I don't. Yes, my greyhound Cobby (Cawbourne Snowy), who had no racing injuries, hurt himself terribly while running at Tangimoana beach, after he retired. He cut the webbing of his foot on a seashell,which resulted in surgery under general anaestetics, having toe webbing cut off, stitched and foot bandaged, followed up by a lengthy recovery period. Did I enjoy this? No. Would I let him run there again? Yes - absolutely. Some people might not agree - but I believe in QUALITY of life for animals, and them doing what they love and enjoy. This is only one example -there are numerous ones out there.
Back to the sad excuse for the investigative journalism segment, unfortunately, NZ Greyhound Racing was not served by having a quiet gentle old chap as its spokesman, when all that was needed was someone able to brush aside the idiotic criticism of a very biased journalist. In his defence, Jim Leach was visibly shaken by the fact that the one race recorded with the journalist was one where a greyhound broke its leg and was put down.
It is also very telling that a sad excuse for a journalist was so incredibly biased that she did not even mention GAP (Greyhounds As Pets) adoption programme. It is truly unbelievable and so nasty but makes sense. GAP has been established and is largely funded by the racing industry - the biased reporter could not afford to mention that really, it would not work as part of her biased message she was trying to put accross to unsuspecting viewers.
The move for the mockumentary was that a clown by the name of Aaron Cross believes that greyhound racing is cruel and should be banned. If it was not ridiculous, it would be sad.
People like Aaron Cross live for their 15 minutes of fame. I feel he would be much better served if he tried to do something about the tens of thousands of pets dogs and cats put down each year by animal shelters and SPCAs. And that's tens of thousands every year, in NZ alone. Why no disgust at that? Oh wait -there is no publicity in that. That has been done many times over, by Tom, Dick and Jerry, with no big results.
Majority of dogs euthanised in this country are unwanted household pets, non-greyhound breeds. The statistics are easy to find and the SPCA for one regularly publishes their figures. In their case the number exceeds 30,000. Also the number of cruelty and attack cases prosecuted are without doubt, non greyhound related. Pet owners population in general own the absolute worst statistics in relation to animal welfare. Puppy mills are rife, supplying pet shops, where people buy the puppies.
Working dogs and pedigee dogs have been all but destroyed by breeders, sad shadows of their ancestors, ridden with genetical deformities, bad hips, unable to breathe because of exeggerated flat nose, bulging eyes etc, to name just a few of the health problems that affect their lives. Even if they are healthy, they are stuck in back yards and lucky to get any exercise, let alone exercise that their breed needs and requires.
I don't want to see the day when people would have to do a hip score on a greyhound. That would be the end of this amazing breed as we know it. And guess what? For show greyhounds overseas (non-racing ones), hip scores are ALREADY done. No surprise there. :( We have seen it all before, with other working breeds, who have been all but butchered on the hands of breeders.
Racing greyhound is beautifully bred for work, for solid confirmation - hip scores do not even exist for racing greyhounds. They would make no sense; racing dogs are bred beautifully, to be solid and healthy. Genetic defects are bred out. This is the way it should be, for any dog breed.
As we all know, retired racing greyhounds make WONDERFUL pets for today's pet owners due to their nature, temperament and low exercise requirement - that is for me, the most important message. Sadly, the reporter on this show called them 'powerful beasts with huge prey drive -you would not want them running after you'. After SUCH description -who would want to adopt one?! What upsets me the most is that this biased reporter did not say ONE WORD about GAP and what lovely pets retired racers make. So sad - and so biased. I feel sorry for the reporter in some bizarre way -it must be awful to be that sort of a person.
But at the end of the day -we will race and love our doggies, both racing and retired ones. And at the end of the day, truth will prevail and publicity-seeking clowns and biased reporters will be exposed for what they are.
Greyhounds love to race - let them race. And then adopt a retired one
x x x
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