GREY2K USA, the biggest anti-greyhound racing organisation in the world, launched on 11th January 2023 a campaign to inform the public that gambling operator Churchill Downs is the last major corporation propping up dog racing in the United States. In 2022, the largest competitor to Churchill Downs, TVG, removed dog racing from its platform, leaving Churchill Downs as the largest remaining company in the US that still profits from betting on greyhound racing.
GREY2K USA has launched an educational website, TwinSpiresCruelty.com, in which it says, “TwinSpires, a division of Churchill Downs (CDI), is cashing in on cruelty and hoping that you don’t care about greyhounds. CDI is a large, publicly traded company and claims to have a long tradition of social corporate responsibility. But it has turned a blind eye to greyhounds and its subsidiary continues to allow gamblers to place online bets on American dog races. Even worse, TwinSpires is promoting Mexican dog racing, where there are no animal welfare protections.”
Greyhound racing is illegal in 42 US states. After dog racing gradually declined for decades, in 2018 Florida voters banned it closing twelve operational racetracks. There are only two tracks in West Virginia. Where state records show that 627 greyhounds were injured in 2021 including 189 dogs that suffered broken bones and 10 greyhounds that died.
Christine A. Dorchak, GREY2K USA President and General Counsel, said: “If Churchill Downs takes its own corporate social responsibility policy seriously, it will stop supporting an activity that is out of step with mainstream American values…”Churchill Downs and its subsidiary, TwinSpires, are propping up the final remnants of an industry that is responsible for the confinement, deaths and abuse of thousands of dogs. Such greed is unacceptable in today’s increasingly humane economy.”
