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Cover Stories Spring 2003 Hinsdale Greyhound
Park Hinsdale, NH: On Monday, Feb. 3, WFXT Channel 25, the Boston Fox News affiliate, aired an investigative report on the killing of race dogs at Hinsdale Greyhound Park. Investigative reporter Mike Beaudet interviewed people on both sides of the greyhound racing issue for the report, which included photographs of dead racing dogs. Jill Hopfenbeck, DVM, emptied bags full of greyhound bones that she said were dug up a year and a half ago on track property. Hopfenbeck estimated that thousands of greyhounds are buried on 10 acres of land behind the racetrack. "The public needs to know that if a dog isn't fast enough to earn a living, it's going to end up in a hole," she said. Wayne Paquette, a former employee of the track, said he had witnessed the killing of healthy dogs. "They would walk them into a shed, put them to sleep, and then just pile them up in a bucket, just like they were trash," Paquette said in a breaking voice. David Caleb, operations manager at the track, disputed that thousands of dogs were buried at the track and said that hundreds was more likely. "If a dog is euthanized on the track, it's buried here on site just like on a farm," he said. Track management refused to open its records to Beaudet, but said that 68 dogs were euthanized at the track in 2002 and 547 were adopted. Louise Coleman, director of the Greyhound Friends, who takes many Hinsdale dogs into her adoption program, was asked if she believed healthy greyhounds were still being euthanized at the track. She answered, "probably." New Hampshire Rep. Paul LaFlamme, who recently sponsored legislation to make track records available to the public, said he did so because he wants to know what happens to greyhounds when their racing days are over. Paul Kelly, director of the New Hampshire racing commission, said, "I don't know what purpose it serves the public to track the number of dogs euthanized." The Greyhound Protection League
provided the photos shown on the Channel 25 news report. According to
GPL director Susan Netboy, a concerned industry insider managed to snap
the photos just prior to the disposal of the bodies into a shallow pit
several years ago. The photos can be seen on GPL's website: www.greyhounds.org
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