October 10, 2006 Update

NGA BANS SHIPMENT OF GREYHOUNDS TO JUAREZ

To: NationalGPA
Subject: [NationalGPA] NGA Bans shipment of greyhounds to Juarez
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006

NGA BANS SHIPMENT OF GREYHOUNDS TO JUAREZ
Abilene, KS (October 6, 2006)—The Board of Directors of the National Greyhound Association (NGA) has adopted a total ban on the shipment of greyhounds to Juarez Greyhound Track in Mexico, according to NGA Executive Director Gary Guccione. NGA members have been cautioned not to sell, transfer or give greyhounds under their ownership or care to individuals acquiring those greyhounds for the purpose of sending them to Juarez. The organization established a policy of discouraging such shipments in June 2005, but had not banned them completely until now.

There are no greyhounds at the Juarez track today. Even if the track resumes live racing in the future, NGA board members say they want no more U.S. greyhounds sent there. They believe the Juarez track now presents an “at-risk” situation for greyhounds because of its failure to establish acceptable animal welfare and adoption policies, its lack of cooperation with U.S. adoption organizations, and the legal problems of its owner, Jose Maria Guardia, who has been accused of drug trafficking and money laundering.

Guccione emphasized that all the greyhounds originally shipped to Juarez have been returned to the U.S. for adoption. However, he noted that the recovery of the greyhounds was not easy because the track reneged several times on its original agreement to turn the dogs over to Greyhound Pets of America (GPA) when they finished racing.

“Largely through the determination and diligence of Pat Roberts and her local GPA/Lone Star Chapter in El Paso, and GPA President Rory Goree, all the Juarez greyhounds were finally brought back stateside,” Guccione said. “All of them have been placed or are awaiting placement in adoptive homes.”

NGA’s initial “discouragement” policy came more than a year ago, immediately after eight greyhounds died of heat stroke after being driven from Tucson Greyhound Park to the Juarez track in a manner later found to be in violation of Arizona Racing Commission regulations. Lengthy delays at the Mexico border also may have contributed to the greyhound deaths.

At that time, NGA officials stated that the policy would remain in place until the issue of border-crossing delays was resolved, and the track was able to document that it had established credible animal welfare and adoption programs to ensure the health and safety of the
greyhounds during and after their racing careers. The track never fulfilled those conditions, so NGA declined to rescind its discouragement policy. After all the greyhounds were safely back home in the U.S., the NGA enacted the total ban.

Guccione noted that the other Mexican border track, Caliente, is not affected by the Juarez ban because Caliente has a good record of cooperation on animal welfare and adoption efforts.

61 MORE JUAREZ GREYHOUNDS CROSS THE BORDER INTO U.S.

WELCOME HOME

On June 10, the greyhounds were supposed to be pulled out of Juarez. Teddy Palmer arranged for a hauler. Arrangements were made with volunteers to meet and start to transport dogs across the border from the kennel at 2am. Jerry and Candy Beck drove down from Albuquerque, Jim McDowell, GPA-Arizona, brought the dog trailer in from Phoenix. Pat Roberts Pres. GPA-El Paso, got a call from Nacho, the kennel master,on Friday evening the 9th. Guardia was there throwing a fit threatening to have him and anyone else who took the dogs put in jail. Guardia said he wanted the dogs ready to race in 2 months. The hauler was turned around and a meeting was set for Saturday morning the 10th with the gentleman who had signed the "release" of the dogs in April and who had at that time been the general manager of the track with the authority to do this. The general manager suggested we get the dogs out as quickly as possible, Pat figured there was no time like the present. Tha t afternoon 3 vans went to the Juarez kennel and pulled 15 dogs out to freedom. 4 went with us to NM, 5 went to Houston, Tx and 4 went to Arizona with Jim. One seriously ill greyhound, due to a spider bite, was immediately taken to Dr. Rachael, he is at this time well on his way to recovery.

On June 17, Rory Goree flew into El Paso and met with Guardia, who "owned" the dogs and Julian (the general manager) at the Juarez track. During the time of the meeting Pat Roberts pulled 3 more dogs out of the kennel. It was agreed that if there wasn't air conditioning running in the kennels (at this time the temperatures were over 100 degrees and there was not enough power to run air conditioning) by June 24 that all dogs would be released.

Saturday, June 24, it was determined that there was no air conditioning and the dogs could be removed. At some point Saturday afternoon the hauler was contacted and headed for El Paso. On Sunday, June 25th at 4am the removal of the remaining 61 greyhounds at the Juarez track began. 5 vehicles were used carrying a driver and a helper with a water spray bottle. Pat and Alan Roberts of GPA-El Paso, Jerry & Candy Beck of GPA-NMGC, Suzanne and Brian Brannan and Suzanne's Father Luke, Noreen Reid of GPA-National and Rory Goree Pres. of GPA-National were the transport team. It took approximately 6 hours to remove all the greyhounds. Rory and Noreen Reid did a walk through of the entire kennel to insure that there were no longer any greyhounds present. The last greyhounds crossed into the US at 10:14am. At 5:15pm the hauler, driving a converted greyhound bus, pulled out and the greyhounds were on their way to their new lives.

None of this could have been done without the dedication of Pat Roberts, and her husband Alan, of GPA-El Paso who spent many an hour at the Juarez kennel seeing to the welfare of the dogs. Not for one second, did Pat even think about giving up on these dogs. It is due to her tena city that they are now safe at home in the US. Pat promised the dogs that they would come home and she never lies to a dog (sometimes to people when necessary), but never to a dog. Special thanks, also, must go to Nacho Flores, the kennel master, who continued to care for the greyhounds long after he was no longer being paid, and without his care and dedication these greyhounds would not be with us now. Nacho is a credit to the human race, he is the person our dogs would want us to be.

Special thanks also needs to go to Barkerhaus Kennels who at the drop of a hat, made room for the 61 greyhounds and helped to make the mass exodus of the greyhounds possible. Thanks as well to the many volunteers that drove the vans, and watched over the greyhounds at the kennel during that long day.

In closing, we would enourage the racing communinity to NEVER send another greyhound to the Juarez racetrack. There is no longer any type of adoption program there, and we are pretty sure they would never work with GPA again. The facility has deteriorated and is not the kind of place responsible owners and trainers would want to put their dogs. We would ask the racing community to please consider the welfare of your greyhounds above all else, we got these 126 out but the next ones probably would not be so lucky.

Taking the dogs out of the kennel

The final van load of the Juarez
greyhounds ready to leave.

Juarez Update - 05/20/06

GREYHOUNDS CROSS THE BORDER BACK INTO THE US

Jim McDowell, of GPA-Arizona, arrived with the first 16 Juarez greyhounds to come back to the US. They spent the afternoon exploring and resting in Chris's backyard. We then meet John Holman who was going to haul them on to Colorado and Portland, Oregon. The 7th pic is his hauler. The last was as we were saying goodbye and wishing him a safe trip. Read the full story below.

May 19, 2006

At 8:25am, Friday, May 19 a load of 16 Greyhounds from Juarez Racetrack crossed the border back into the US bound for their adoption groups and their forever homes.

The Greyhounds, driven by GPA-Arizona's Jim McDowell left El Paso, Tx. and headed for Albuquerque, New Mexico to meet a Greyhound hauler coming in from Elk City, OK. The Greyhounds arrived in Albuquerque at around 2:00pm. They were immeditely taken to the home of GPA-NMGC volunteer Chris Campbell, and with the help of volunteers Joan Smith and Jerry and Candy Beck, turned out in Chris's lovely large backyard. The Greyhounds had a wonderful time exploring and just doing the things Greyhounds do, while they awaited the arrival of their next ride.

At 7:00pm that ride arrived in Albuquerque in the person of John Holman. John's services were arranged by Halfway Home Greyhound Adoption's Teddy Palmer, who also had adoption dogs on the hauler. The dogs were quickly loaded onto the hauler and on their way.

Their first stop was Colorado and the volunteers of Rocky Mountain Greyhound Adoption and Colorado Greyhound Companions. Six Greyhounds happily met their new "people" at about 2:00am. On the road again, the last of the Juarez Greyhounds headed for GPA-Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Sunday morning, John Holman called Candy Beck to report that the Greyhounds had completed their journey safely, were in good shape and happy.

Early Saturday morning, May 20, Jim McDowell headed back to Phoenix, Arizona with 14 more Juarez Greyhounds bound for GPA-Arizona.

Our thanks to everyone who made this possible. Thirty (30) Juarez Greyhounds were moved over that wonderful weekend. More will follow as hauls are arranged. Keep watching for the next update.