HB 14-1146, signed into law on March 10, 2014
Colorado is the 39th state to ban Greyhound racing.
Although the last Colorado greyhound track closed in 2008, new ones could have opened at any time without this legislative action.
The reasons behind this bill:
- At commercial racetracks, greyhounds endure lives of terrible confinement and are kept in warehouse-style kennels, cages that are barely large enough for them to stand up or turn around.
- Between 1993 and 2007, 2,636 greyhound injuries were reported at Colorado tracks. (How many went unreported?)
- Injuries included broken legs and fractured spines.
- Breeders and trainers were fined and had licenses suspended when they were caught, which may have been all too seldom. One breeder could not explain how 200 of his dogs disappeared; a trainer gave cocaine to a dog; another breeder allowed her dogs to become tick-infested; 13 dogs died in a barn fire; 100 were discovered ill with kennel cough. All of this is documented.
- As bad as these reported incidents were, they pale in comparison to what has gone on in the seven states that still prop up this dying industry. Some incidents are too shocking to describe here.
