Last time around the track

If every dog track has its day, it's got to be around sunset for the few still here in Iowa.

Greyhound racing has come under fire from all sides this year.

First, there are the animal rights groups who say dog racing is cruel. Then, the spectators - or lack of them - who just don't seem to be interested enough to go to a race.

And finally, the track owners, who want legislators to let them cut loose from the losing enterprise.

Taken together, they make a pretty clear case: If it ever made sense for the state to mandate artificial financial supports for dog racing, it doesn't anymore.

The only question is what, if anything, legislators should do to ease the blow for the estimated 1,300 Iowans who make or supplement their living raising or racing greyhounds. Everything else is just stalling.

We met this week with folks from the non-profit anti-dog racing group GREY2K USA to talk about their recently released study of greyhound racing in Iowa. Animal lovers say the greyhound racing industry breeds too many dogs that are raced at the expense of their health and retired - often destroyed - at a young age.

But, surprisingly, we didn't talk so much about animals with the group on Thursday. We talked about the bottom line.

Greyhound racing is in decline all over the country. Dog tracks still operate in only seven states - 11 have made greyhound racing illegal since 1993. According to GREY2K USA, more than half the country's tracks for live greyhound racing have closed since 2001. In the last two years alone, the last tracks have closed in Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Dog racing's not very popular here, either, so operators must subsidize the purses - to the tune of about $12 million last year, according to Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

Harrah's commissioned a study, released last spring, which found that they spent about $140 million in slot and table revenues to subsidize greyhound racing purses in Iowa from 1995 to 2008.

“My sense is that everyone knows how this story ends,” GREY2K USA Executive Director Carey Theil told us.

But also last spring, state legislators failed to take up Harrah's offer of $7 million a year if they'd amend the law requiring live racing at Dubuque's Mystique Casino and Harrah's-owned Bluffs Run in Council Bluffs. Nearly everybody would have walked away a winner in that deal.

Instead, we're headed for one more time around the track in the next legislative session. Let's hope it's the last.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@thegazette.com