Welcome to the Soul Touched by Dogs Podcast, the show for dog lovers who
see dogs not as toys or tools, but wise souls worth our respect and care.
I'm an Herrmann, and I'm your host.
I talk to poor some humans, people who do great work for dogs and their people.
So come and join us for today's conversation.
Hello
Anke: and welcome, Christine and Carey.
I'm super excited to have you here.
I always say it, but like, I'm really, really excited to have you guys here.
So before we go anywhere, yeah, why don't you just start out?
Give us the two minutes, birds eye view, where you're based.
You know, what's your business, what's your project?
Go ahead, Christine.
Christine: Well, Carey and I are the founders of Gray2K USA Worldwide,
and we are a non profit advocacy organization working to end the cruelty
of greyhound racing across the globe.
We also promote adoption of X Racers.
And we fund adoption and rescue all across the world, because unfortunately, although
greyhound racing was invented here in the United States, it has metastasized
to other countries, and therefore we're helping save those greyhounds as well.
We feel that's our obligation here, um, at Greyhound UK USA to really see the
whole problem and help try to solve it.
Anke: Yeah, I mean, that's so dear to my heart because I live in Spain and yep,
there are a lot of greyhounds here that, you know, so I don't, I don't know how
big the race industry is, but it exists.
It hell exists.
So yeah, for sure.
Christine: Well, the problem in Spain is with Galgos used for hunting.
Thankfully the last dog track was closed some years ago, but
unfortunately the hunters continue to use and abuse greyhounds during
the hunting season every year.
So that's of course a great concern to us as well.
Anke: So how did you get When you started with that, I would imagine you didn't
leave school thinking or, you know, like going to university or whatever, thinking,
what am I going to do with my life?
I'm going to go rescue greyhounds.
My guess is that wasn't the case.
So how did you get into that?
Christine: Well, we come to it in two different ways.
As we discuss in our book, we're very different people and Kerry's from one
side of the country and I from another.
In my case, I'll just, um, Let you know how I came to be, uh,
involved in helping Greyhounds.
I was run over by a train when I was at the age of 26.
And I was saved by my dog, who pulled me just enough out of the
path of the train to save us both.
And I said to myself, once I was out of my coma, If I ever get up
and walk and talk again, I'm going to do something to help dogs.
Because I've got a debt to pay.
So that was the beginning of my focus on helping dogs.
And little did I know that it would lead to This campaign to end
dog racing, not just in my home state of Massachusetts, in the U.
S., but nationwide, and now we hope worldwide.
Kerry came to it in a different way.
Now, Kerry, how did you come to it?
He didn't have to be hit by a train.
Anke: Oh, I think that's highly recommended.
Carey: Yeah, I had done a lot of legislative work as a young man, and my
mother ran a local animal rights group so I cared very deeply about animal
issues in general, and I learned of.
This ballot question campaign, there was going to be a vote on whether to
abolish grand racing completely in the state of Massachusetts, and I was
recruited essentially to come out and be a spokesperson for that campaign when I
was 22 years old, so I was sort of thrown into the fire at at a pretty young age,
and that campaign, which Christine was one of the key volunteers for, um, I was
really the first time that, uh, Ordinary dog lovers, you know, stood up against the
greyhound racing industry and tried to end it and uh, it was a very uh, uh, it was
it was a Brutal campaign quite frankly.
It was it got very nasty that the dog track owner uh The two dog track owners
that were fighting us spent millions of dollars against us in television ads.
They had a A former police lieutenant standing in front of his police
car saying there's no animal abuse.
He had, they had a Catholic priest who told voters to vote to keep Greyhound
Racing, a single mother with her children and Greyhounds running in an open field.
And on the Friday before the election.
Christine and I and two other people were sued by one of the track owners for
10 million for defamation of character.
So it, it truly was, um, you know, they did, did everything they could to, to
stop us, but we kept fighting and we, we showed voters, you know, how dogs live
in this industry, that dogs endure lives in terrible confinement, that, you know,
Hundreds of dogs were suffering broken legs and other serious injuries, and
on election day we lost 51 to 49, which was one of the closest elections in the
history of the state, and truly, excuse me, a crushing moment for Christina
and I personally and everyone else who was involved, but We also realized that
we had stood up to this very powerful animal abuse industry and nearly won.
And so, uh, we formed a national non profit organization after that, Great2K
USA, which is now Great2K USA Worldwide.
And, uh, the, the book that Christine and I just wrote, it's, it's the, the
story of how greyhound racing Uh, you know, rose in the United States, the
rise, and then the ultimate fall of greyhound racing in the United States.
Um, this industry has unfortunately spread across the world and, uh,
that first campaign in Massachusetts, even though we lost, it not only, um,
birthed our non profit organization, it laid the groundwork for a
grassroots movement to help these dogs.
Which is active all over the world now in Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Wales.
Um, uh, it, you know, people all over are fighting for these
gentle dogs, uh, Spain, obviously.
Um, and, you know, finally, uh, you know, it's also the story of one particular
greyhound named Brooklyn that we adopted.
And You know, that was a powerful moment for us, not only because, you know, he
had gone through incredible abuse, and we can talk about that specifically
later, but, you know, also, really the end of Greyhound Racing happened in the,
in the course of his life over 13 short years, and I think that, that is, for
me, A powerful example of how fundamental change can happen very quickly.
Um, what is 13 years in the grand scope of time?
It's really nothing when you're dealing with a multi billion dollar
industry that at one time was using and abusing more than 50, 000 dogs
a year just in the United States.
So I think, I think our story is, is a story of hope.
It's a story that, uh, the power of everyday people really can kick, win
the day, um, as long as you never feel, never, never leave the field and, and
never give, give up and just keep fighting for the animals and keep fighting for
the dogs, um, no matter what happens.
Anke: That's massive, like that's massive from like, it's a really short
period of time when you think about it.
You know, and with that level of pushback, you know, that, that's, that's, yeah.
Do you find raising awareness as a big part of it?
Because when I'm thinking like, I, I kind of remember when I was like maybe
five or something, I was like really little back in East Germany, where I'm
from, my dad took me to a Greyhound race.
You know, and all I remember was how difficult it was because I remember
that little, that little kind of fluffy thing, you know, and they wouldn't run
and then they would catch it and, you know, and it was like, I don't know,
like, but that's what, like, you know what, I was taken there as a child, you
know, so I saw it, and then, and then it just didn't exist anymore, but see, I
mean, obviously I was kind of too young to kind of think like, what is that?
So, but do you find people don't really know or didn't really know what was
actually going on behind the scenes?
It's almost like with horse racing as well.
Like all you see is, oh, they're running and the horse wins and oh, you're betting
on the horse and People don't really know the conditions these animals live in and
is that, is that your experience or how did you get that much support from, from
people to, to help you like get that close and actually, you know, achieve
so much in such a short period of time?
Christine: Well, I can use myself as an example.
I didn't know anything about dog racing.
I didn't even know there was dog racing in my state, much less that
there were 2000 greyhounds living in small cages dying every week.
Well.
You know, a bunch of, uh, you know, low level gamblers were betting
two dollars on them, whether they'd live or die on a given day.
It was horrendous, but I didn't know anything about it.
So, as we like to say, dog racing is a low information issue.
And even when we've been out campaigning for months or years, collecting signatures
on a petition, many people will come up to us and say, What's dog racing?
Or we have dog racing?
So it really is an issue that is very open to education and what we find
is that every kind of person has a reason for wanting to end dog racing.
Whether it be the cruelty visited on the dogs or the waste.
Taxpayer funds are used to prop up this industry.
So whether someone is left or right or somewhere in between, there are so many.
reasons why we can all agree that the cruelty of greyhound racing should end
and the taxpayers be relieved of, you know, keeping this industry afloat, which
is what it's doing around the world.
It's, it's a, it's a real tragedy here in the United States, for
instance, Our last two dog tracks in West Virginia are only there because
of a 17 million a year subsidy.
So that's something we fight.
We've learned along the way that there are many, you know, elements to our fight.
So depending on our audience, we could be talking about the humane aspects
first, and then the economic or reverse.
And for that reason, people from all stripes have come together
to work to help the Greyhounds.
We've had the most, you know, high level Republicans on one side and the
most, you know, lefty Democrats come together, sit down and say, we're
going to help you end dog racing.
And it's just been a beautiful experience because the dogs really unite people,
just as Brooklyn United, me and Carrie.
When we We were able to bring greyhound racing to an end at China's only legal dog
track, which was known as the Canadrome.
We airlifted over 500 greyhounds to safety from the tracks.
They went to groups around the world.
One of those dogs was Brooklyn.
He came home to us, and it was his miraculous rescue that inspired us.
And really made us realize that it is possible to take on this
industry, wherever it exists.
So that is why this book is really focused on the life of Brooklyn.
That's how we tell our story.
And that's how we introduce people to.
So many volunteers and others along the way who've made this,
you know, campaign successful.
I
Anke: love that.
I love that.
And it's so true.
Like, you know, we are, you know, I was kind of like,
tell me about Brooklyn, right?
Because when it's one dog, like when it's, it becomes, it feels,
it becomes personal, right?
So how did you hear about Brooklyn?
How did you even, like, you know, how did you get to China and how?
Did you meet Brooklyn and why did you bring Brooklyn home out
of the 500 that you rescued?
Carey: Yeah, well, no.
As we started to make some progress in the United States for these dogs,
we realized that there were greyhounds suffering all over the world.
And we knew that the greyhounds that were suffering and dying in Massachusetts
and Florida were the same as the dogs that were suffering, you know, in these
other jurisdictions overseas and so One of our board members named Charmaine
Settle started to, uh, Christine and I did a fair amount of traveling as
well just to meet other advocates and, and understand how the industry works.
But Charmaine, uh, went all, all across the globe and looked at
greyhound racing in various places.
And she went to the Canadrome, which was the only legal dog track in China.
It was, it was a death track.
30 dogs a year were being imported from Australia and 30 dogs a year
were I'm sorry, a month, thank you, and 30 dogs a month were
being killed, um, like clockwork.
Um, and she took a series of photographs, and one of the photos she took was of
this, uh, very beautiful dog, this very striking image, and, uh, the only way we
could identify him is there were three, there was a collar, and we had three
letters, L Y N, and we tried to find out who is this dog, and our best guess
is that it was a dog named Brooklyn.
Brooklyn had been born.
Let me go back a second.
I mentioned our first campaign in Massachusetts.
We were defeated.
We brought that ballot question back to voters eight years later in 2008,
and the voters in Massachusetts voted with, by a huge margin, to outlaw
greyhound racing, to shut down two operational dog tracks that were
harming thousands of dogs a year.
Um, it was a sweeping victory.
Only a few weeks after that Massachusetts vote, Brooklyn was born in Australia.
His father had been a failed racer, his mother had been a failed racer.
He raced for a couple of, really a few months in Australia, did not,
was not successful, and then was.
Shipped off to the Canadrome, um, where he was surely going to die, and, you
know, Charmaine took this photo of him, the photo went all over the world
and became this iconic image, and, you know, from the far reaches of the earth,
people called on the Macau government to shut down this track, and we, and we
wrote to them and said, at a minimum, um, Adopt out Brooklyn and let him be
the first dog at this track to not die.
And the track did not respond.
We heard absolutely nothing.
And so we started a campaign to convince the government to shut the track down.
That did succeed, but it took eight long years.
When we, when our ally, Albano Martins, who was our advocate on the ground,
went in after we won and started looking at the 500 plus dogs that were
there, he couldn't believe it, but Brooklyn was there and still alive.
Brooklyn had lived in a cement cell for eight years.
We were sure this dog was dead.
Christina, she said, and others helped adopt out these dogs to
various places throughout the world.
Brooklyn came home to us and he was, he was in bad shape.
He was underweight.
He had a lot of missing teeth.
But he was the sweetest dog and, you know, to come home to us after all of
those years of suffering was really the first time he had had a home.
Um, but his story didn't end there.
After only a few weeks, he started to limp.
We took him to the vet.
He was diagnosed with bone cancer.
We had the leg amputated, uh, he had chemotherapy, and the
veterinarian said, well, nine months, you can hope for nine months.
And we were incredibly blessed.
Brooklyn lived for three long years with us.
Uh, he became the example at the local veterinary schools, the veterinary
hospitals, they would say, well, Some dogs do live a lot longer.
There's this dog named Brooklyn that lived, has been living for years.
Brooklyn also had later a type of spinal stroke called an FCE where
he lost a lot of his mobility, a lot of his coordination.
But despite all of this, he was just the most gentle, happy dog.
We'd bring him in every day and he would stand at the opening of our building and
wait for people to come in and pet him.
And everyone who met him was was truly touched, and, uh, when he did pass, uh,
there were all over the world, there were, uh, dog walks in his honor, there
were obituaries written, uh, the South China Morning Post wrote an entire
feature story about the impact he had made, and, uh, only a few weeks after
he passed, by this point, almost all of the American dog tracks had been
shuttered, and, uh, A ballot question to outlaw greyhound racing in Florida
where there were 12 tracks had passed with by an overwhelming margin and the
owner, the track owner that owned the very last two tracks, which are both in the
state of West Virginia, just a few weeks after Brooklyn passed, publicly said,
we don't want to do dog racing anymore.
We want to get out of this industry.
So now we're still fighting that fight because sometimes
it's hard to finish things.
But, um, you know, he truly was, uh, A transformational figure and,
and, and it was just an incredible honor to, to know him and, and
love him and take care of him.
It was truly a gift.
Oh, I just
Anke: can't go on, can we?
So I would love to hear, you know, where can people get the book?
Where can people find out more about you?
How can people support you or get in touch with you?
Christine: Well, I just like to add that, you know, what you said is right.
Dogs really unite people.
And when people hear the story of a dog, or a dog in need in particular, it just,
it just passes through all of our hearts.
We understand.
These dogs really communicate something, and Brooklyn's story of
survival is something we wanted to share with others, and we also want
the story of our very small grassroots organization fighting against this
multi Billion dollar industry.
We want people to understand that change is possible and you don't
have to have a lot of money.
You don't have to be the smartest people in the world or have the, all
the connections just keep working.
So we hope that people will read the book, uh, and learn about the many people
that have been part of this campaign and.
Think about how they can take the strategies that we used, which was to
realize our goals through incremental steps and have a lot of patience, use
these same strategies for the things that they care about and they want to change.
So that's our hope with the book and it's available.
Um, online, um, through Amazon, for instance, uh, you can go to our website.
There's a link to it at grey2kusa.
org.
You can get it on Kindle as well.
Uh, actually it's officially out on November 7th.
So hopefully by the time people read this, they may already have it in their hands.
Anke: Awesome.
I mean, you're, you're so, you're so right.
There is so much, I mean, I, I still kind of, my mind is still,
I can't believe it's done.
Lasted like in that in those conditions, but that's a miracle already, you know
that he even made it that long And then that he could hang on for so long with
you and you know, I've got to live What it's like to have a home and to be loved.
And it's just like heartwarming.
And there's so much hope in it and the whole project.
It's just, it's just absolutely delightful.
So we'll obviously put the link to the, to your website and to the
book, and it's going to be in the show notes, if people listening and
it's on the, um, you know, on the.
page where it goes as well.
So thank you.
Thank you so much for, you know, sharing this powerful mission and
this beautiful work you're doing.
I feel honored that you've decided to come and share and share your story.
Thank you.
Thank
Christine: you so much for having us and letting us share our story with you.
Thanks so much for listening.
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That's A N k E at Soul touched by dogs.com.