Cover Stories Summer 2002

Thousands of Florida Racing Greyhounds Shot to Death on Alabama Farm

Security Guard at Pensacola Track Faces Felony Animal Abuse Charges

Lillian, Alabama: Robert Rhodes, 68, who admitted killing thousands of greyhounds during his 50-year career in the dog racing industry, was charged with three felony counts of animal cruelty and booked into the Bay Minette jail without bond Wednesday, May 22. The arrest came one day after Baldwin County investigators obtained a warrant to search the 18-acre property owned by Rhodes after receiving information about his kill-for-hire operation from Florida investigators. Rhodes reportedly charged a $10 fee per dog for his greyhound disposal service. Lillian, population 4,750, is less than ten miles from the Pensacola track.

According to David Whetstone, Baldwin County District Attorney, aerial photos showed the property littered with the skeletal remains of thousands of greyhounds. Based on the aerial photos and Rhodes's own admissions, investigators believe Rhodes slaughtered 2,000 to 3,000 greyhounds over the past 10 years. Rhodes did not dispute the investigators' claims.

Rhodes, a retired greyhound breeder and trainer, worked as a part-time security guard at the Pensacola Greyhound Track, which gave him access to the dogs. He told law enforcement officials and reporters that he had been killing greyhounds his entire adult life, beginning with his first job out of high school as a young man in the Black Hills of South Dakota. [The Black Hills track in Rapid City operated from 1949 until its closure in 1992. - Ed.]

"It was quick, they didn't feel a thing."
Rhodes insisted that he has always put the animals down humanely - with a gunshot - and does not believe he has done anything wrong. He said he did not make the dogs suffer. On the rare occasions when the first bullet had not cleanly killed the animal, he said he fired a second shot to bring quick death. "Wouldn't you assume a person doing this for 50 years would know how to put them down?" Rhodes asked.

"I've made my living off these dogs my whole life," Rhodes said. "You have to understand I would not condone any torture. It was quick, they didn't feel a thing." Rhodes demonstrated how he delivered the fatal shot. He loosened the dog's collar, laid a .22-caliber rifle across the back of his left hand, placed the barrel against the dog's head and fired. He used a tractor to dig a pit for the dog carcasses; after he shot the dog, it fell into the pit. Rhodes said the $10 he received to kill each dog covered the cost of digging the holes.

Greyhounds Suffered Before Dying
On Tuesday, May 21, Whetstone, accompanied by other county officials, watched as investigators unearthed a freshly dug pit containing the bodies of 40 greyhounds. "They were probably killed in April and dragged into the pit. We took the tattooed identification numbers out of their ears. They were still bloody inside," he said. Whetstone likened the scene to a Nazi concentration camp. "It was bizarre, almost a Dachau for dogs."

Four of the exhumed greyhounds were necropsiesd at the scene by the veterinarian who accompanied the investigative team. The vet determined that only one dog had been cleanly shot through the brain. "Three of the four dogs appeared to be shot in places that would not cause instant death, not through the brain but through the neck or mouth. We don't know how long they may have suffered, or if they were alive when they were buried," Whetstone said.

Whetstone's investigators are tracking down the tattooed registry numbers of the forty exhumed dogs. He has pledged to follow the investigation wherever it leads. "Do we believe other people were involved? Yes. Is there evidence that they knew how the dogs were being killed? Yes. Are we going to pursue it? Yes."

Rhodes acknowledged that unwanted greyhounds are a fact of life. He admitted dog owners and trainers have contacted him over the years about disposing of greyhounds that are past their prime or injured.

Whetstone said he believes that some of the animals dispatched with four-cent bullets had been kenneled in the Hialeah area, where the Hollywood and Flagler greyhound tracks jointly operate Florida Kennels, a 30-acre spread that can accommodate 2,000 dogs. Rhodes told WEAR-TV Channel 3, Pensacola's local ABC affiliate, that greyhound owners from as far away as West Palm Beach brought their dogs to him.

Reporters and investigators at the Lillian scene said the 18-acre farm was strewn with rusty trailers, ramshackle farm buildings, filthy sheds, a motor home, and other vehicles. Also found were steel animal traps, which were probably used to trap coyotes and foxes. Live animals, including hogs, cows, and goats, as well as greyhounds Rhodes claimed were being boarded for a veterinarian, were also found on the grounds.

Rhodes also ran a second animal disposal business. He picked up roadkill and downed or dead farm animals such as cows and horses, butchered them, then fed the meat to his own greyhounds and left the carcasses to his hogs. Whetstone said the hogs also ate some of the greyhound remains. Gerald McGough, an investigator for the Alabama Department of Agriculture, said Rhodes could face additional misdemeanor charges related to health code and agricultural violations. "Feeding livestock to swine is a misdemeanor," he said.

Investigation Prompted by Irate Owner?
The trail leading to Rhodes's property began in late April with an anonymous tip re-portedly made to Albert Kelson, the racing director at the Pensacola Greyhound Track. Kelson heard rumors that dogs were being shipped off by the truckload, often under cover of darkness, across the state line to be killed at Rhodes's property in Lillian.

Kelson notified the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering and helped investigators collect evidence. According to an informed source, however, it was an irate owner searching for missing dogs that actually led to the investigation.

Andy Hillman, a veterinarian who moonlights at the track and euthanizes the majority of locally discarded greyhounds, said he has heard rumors about the practice for years. He insisted, however, the first hard evidence emerged in May and firmly denied that the executions were widely known. Hillman euthanizes more than 500 greyhounds a year, about 10 a week, at the Pensacola track.

The Division's investigation implicated Clarence Ray Patterson, one of nine kennel operators under contract at the Pensacola track, and two other unidentified security guards. In an interview with The New York Times, Kelson said Patterson was giving dogs to Rhodes to be killed. The other security guards were concealing Rhodes's visits to the kennel compound by not signing him in. All four men were fired on May 10.

Animal Groups Sickened by Slaughter
"The evidence that was brought to light destroys the ongoing propaganda from the racing industry that greyhounds are treated humanely and are not killed," said Susan Netboy, founder of the California-based Greyhound Protection League (GPL).

Netboy said she believed the extermination of greyhounds is commonplace. Operations like Rhodes's are known in the industry as "going back to the farm," where dogs simply disappear into the backwoods, she said. "It's a sad commentary on how greyhounds are really treated."

GPL intends to press for a full-scale investigation. "We intend to find out who consigned the dogs to such a brutal death, who drove the kill trucks, and who looked the other way," Netboy said. "All of the guilty parties need to be held accountable," she said.

Netboy, one of the most outspoken critics of the industry, estimated that 20,000 healthy greyhounds are being killed year after year. That number includes 7,000 puppies killed before they ever get a chance to race, she said. About 13,000 retired racers find adoptive homes each year.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is also calling for an expanded investigation. "While we appreciate the efforts of the Pensacola Greyhound Park management to shed light on this issue, we suspect that a thorough investigation will uncover deeper ties between track officials and Mr. Rhodes," said Brian Sodergren, companion animal issues specialist for the HSUS. "It's inconceivable to think that this has been going on for years without [Pensacola] track officials having knowledge of the fate of thousands of dogs," Sodergren said.

According to Netboy, who reviewed the track's racing programs, six current and two past board members of the NGA are running their dogs at Pensacola. "I was shocked to see that dog racing's most influential participants are sending their dogs to the most infamous, well documented 'kill track' in the country," Netboy said.

Carl Viener, who has been rescuing greyhounds for nearly 20 years with Adopt a Greyhound Atlanta, said, "When you've got a lot like this, it becomes big news, but greyhounds are killed every day, some at vets, some with baseball bats, some slowly starved or just turned out to die. It just usually isn't reported."

Industry Response: "Isolated Incident"
In a May 23 interview with The Miami Herald, Gary Guccione, executive director of the Kansas-based National Greyhound Association (NGA), called the Alabama situation "isolated." Guccione said 18,000 dogs were adopted last year and another 5,000-6,000 "went back to the farm" for breeding purposes. "There were 28,000 dogs bred in a year. That means there are some dogs falling through the cracks," he said.

Yet, in a May 25 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Guccione said 33,000 greyhounds were bred in 2001. In the same interview he said the euthanasia number of former racers is about 5,000. A week later, Guccione told National Public Radio that 3,000 greyhounds are put to death each year. The NGA is the registry for all racing greyhounds bred in North America.

At the local level, Pensacola Greyhound Association President Danny Viles called kennel operator Patterson "a rogue trainer." Viles said the vast majority of trainers make every effort to adopt out a dog before destroying it, but the market can't absorb them all.

Viles, who also lives in Lillian, said, "That's just a bad part of the business, unfortunately. I compare it to owning a professional sports team. If you have one of your star players who isn't putting out, then you have to make [other] arrangements."

Floridians Outraged Over Killings
Letters to the editors poured into the state's major newspapers from Miami to Tallahassee, all of them decrying the abysmal treatment of racing greyhounds. Many called for an end to dog racing in the state.

One letter to the Herald Tribune from a Palmetto resident summarized the majority of opinions expressed: "Dog racing is a dirty and shameful business that offers large financial contributions from lobbyists to those holding political office and to local officials who ignore what is going on and who do not seek fair treatment of these animals. Write to your senators and representatives in Tallahassee and suggest they stop accepting blood money from these profiteers who promote cruelty to animals. Put a stop to greyhound racing."

Investigation Status: Prosecutors continue to search for other participants in the dog-killing operation. Whetstone said he will focus on other suspects after Rhodes's probable-cause hearing on July 19. "We don't believe this guy is the iceberg," Whetstone said July 6. "We think he is the tip of the iceberg."

Editorial Opinions
Florida's Herald Tribune: "There's nothing particularly surprising about the news that the greyhound racing industry treats many of its dogs as if they're as disposable as mechanical rabbits. But the enormity of the cruelty uncovered in Alabama this week is astounding, and it should prompt a widespread investigation of the industry."

Alabama's Mobile Register: "This isn't an isolated instance of a 'rogue trainer,' as racing proponents put it; this is systemic disposal of and cruelty to the animals on which the entire dog racing industry depends.
"This case will, rightfully, inflame the debate between the greyhound industry and animal protection groups on . . . whether the sport ought to be restricted or banned entirely. It's a debate worth having."

Sources: Pensacola News Journal: Brett Norman; St. Petersburg Times: Associated Press; The Miami Herald: Elinor J. Brecher, Frank Carlson; The Tampa Tribune: Garry Mitchell (Associated Press); The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Sandra Eckstein; Mobile Register: Brendan Kirby; The Tuscaloosa News; CNN; The New York Times: David M. Halbfinger; USA Today; National Public Radio, All Things Considered, Debbie Elliott. [The Associated Press and The New York Times articles were syndicated throughout the country.]

The Industry: A History of "Isolated Incidents"

Wisconsin - May 2000
Kennel operator Danial Shonka fraudulently obtained and sold 1,086 racing dogs from the St. Croix Meadows track kennels to a private cardiac research facility. All but 108 of the dogs died in the terminal experiments.

Colorado - June 1998
More than 70 industry members, including NGA board members, donated 2,652 greyhounds to Colorado State University in a three-year period. One-third of the dogs died in terminal teaching labs; the rest were killed on arrival. The alliance between CSU and kennel operators reportedly went on for a decade before it was exposed.

Missouri - May 1998
The bodies of 45 greyhounds, 30 of them puppies, were dumped at a utility sub-station outside of St. Louis. No culprit was ever apprehended.

Texas - May 1994
Sixty-five greyhounds, many near death from starvation, were discovered at a breeding farm in Ballinger. The crated dogs were standing on the skeletal remains of other greyhounds.

Arizona - January 1992
The decomposing bodies of 143 racing greyhounds were discovered in an abandoned orchard in Chandler Heights, a suburb of Phoenix. An investigation by the state's racing department and attorney general's office led to the killer, who was later prosecuted.

Arizona - July 1990
One hundred and one emaciated greyhounds were rescued from a Tucson kennel; only 40 survived.

Florida - August 1989
Eighty-five starving greyhounds were found at a kennel in Dowling Park. The dogs could not be saved.

These are only seven of more than 75 media-documented greyhound abuse cases in recent years. For a complete list, visit the Greyhound Protection League's website at www.greyhounds.org or send a postcard to GNN requesting a copy.