Spare a thought for Benny

UPDATE: After posting a link to this blog on the Greyhound protection leagues facebook page, they've "invited" me to leave their page. Guess they don't like to hear anything that calls their views into question. What a shame .

UPDATE #2: The Palmerston North Council have confirmed that they will euthanise benny. 

Sometimes things just go wrong and spiral out of control.

Take the incredibly sad story of a greyhound called Benny for instance.

Nightrave (who rehome retired racing greyhounds) placed Benny with a family, on trial.

Unfortunately the family's small child left the front gate open on their property and Bennie escaped. This happened not once, not twice, and but three times. Benny was retrieved two of the times he pulled off this escape act.

Nightrave should probably have intervened after the second escape and taken Benny back off the family, whose property and living situation were probably incompatible with owning a greyhound.

Sadly Benny escaped a third time. This time he caught and attacked Quinn, a cat. Quinn's owner rushed Quinn to the vet. While Nightrave covered the vet costs, Quinn sadly died.

Benny's trial owners surrendered Benny to the council, who've since impounded Benny, placing him on death row.

They will probably kill him very soon.

This all came to my attention via the "The greyhound protection league". They're staunch advocates of getting the greyhound racing industry shut down.

Sadly their Facebook post on the issue reads more as a rant against the racing industry, rather than being anything to do with protecting Benny. Both Nightrave and Benny's former trainer had some pretty serious allegations made against them in the post which  was so inflammatory that it bordered on being defamatory (If I were Benny's former trainer or Nightrave, I'd probably be phoning my lawyers).

What struck me was not just what was said by the greyhound protection league, but was not said. Nowhere in the posting did the greyhound protection league really focus on Benny's welfare. I find this pretty hypocritical given they're supposedly the greyhound protection league.

The original posting, and some of the comments, contend that Benny's behaviour is a result of his training by the greyhound racing industry who stimulated his prey drive so he'd chase a synthetic lure around the racetrack as fast as possible. Other comments make the point that Benny could be rehabilitated into a safe environment where he would not have access to cats, and that there is no need for him to be killed.

To my mind a number of people have contributed to this sad situation:

The family who unwittingly facilitated this horrible situation by letting Benny escape. These sort of things happen to even the most responsible dog owner, however letting it happen three times stretches the bounds of credibility. Once should have been enough for the family to take action to ensure it didn't happen again.

After the first escape - certainly the second - Nightrave should have taken Benny way. Sadly this didn't happen either.

The greyhound protection league's rabid post on their Facebook page was neither helpful nor I suspect was it factually informed. It appears that the cat owner, who raised the issue with them, has provided all of the information; not all of it was accurate and it does not appear to have been checked. There are a number of significant errors which have been pointed out by commenters. This does their credibility no good at all and has just inflamed an already heated debate where many other people are posting without any thought on the consequences of their words to poor Benny and other greyhounds.

Unsuprisingly, Quinn's owner is very upset.  Losing a much loved pet is heartbreaking. To lose a pet in such a violent way must be nothing short of horrific. Quinn's owner blames the racing industry and had made some pretty strong comments about the greyhound breed.  She wants Benny to be put down and is convinced this is the only possible outcome.

Grieving is never easy and anger is a natural stage of the grieving process. I can only hope that in the future, she looks back at her comments with horror and realises that any breed of dog could have done the exact same thing, given the right opportunity.

Making matters worse, Quinn's owner has said that she is training to be either a vet or a vet-nurse. Given her comments about greyhounds, I'd have some pretty big concerns with taking my hounds to any practice she was employed at.

She has also said in posts that she wants to go the media with her story.  The NZ media, always on the hunt for a big story, would love nothing better than to cover this given the recent live baiting scandals in Australia. Sadly by going to the media, she will place the lives of hundreds of innocent greyhounds in danger should the perception of them being violent dogs take hold with the public. Based on her comments, it is probably fair to assume she is an animal lover yet sadly her grief has probably clouded judgement to the point that she isn't thinking much about the long term consequences of her words and actions.

Benny on the other hand was doing exactly what many different dog breeds (or even cats) do in the wild, he was hunting. Its not a pleasant thing, but it is the truth.  This is hardly limited to greyhounds, or indeed dogs.

Quinn, like most other cats, had probably in his lifetime also hunted and possibly killed animals. Even the most responsible cat owners who fit bells and don't let their cats out at night can't completely prevent it from happening.

Amidst the finger pointing and blaming the greyhound protection league have been doing, they need to remember that a dog sits on death row. There's been little discussion on how Benny could be best helped, and how Quinn's owner can best be supported through her grief, although both issues have been commented on. This is what needs to happen.

Sadly one thing is abundantly clear. It doesn't matter who is right nor who is wrong. Quinn, a much loved cat has died. Nothing will bring him back. Now a greyhound who just needed a safe and loving home but was let down through a series of errors will also die. Sadly we can't do much for Quinn besides offering his owner our sympathies.

Shouldn't we spare a thought for Benny?  Should he really have to die?