The Dog Track "100%" Adoption Claim

Yesterday, there was an ad in the paper version of the Globe on Question 3, from the the anti-dog group confusingly and absurdly named Massachessetts Animal Coalition (and yes, they spelled the name wrong!). In the ad, there was the biggest whopper of a claim yet.

In the eight years from 2000 to 2007 465,176 greyhounds raced at Massachusetts tracks.

Of course, that number is completely misleading. Saying that 464,176 different dogs raced at Greyhound and Wonderland Race Track - the two dog tracks in this state - would be like saying 100,000 different people have been to my site. Nope! My site may have had 100,000 hits, but most of my traffic comes from frequent readers - who click on my site over and over again. It's the same with the dogs: Greyhounds may have raced 465,176 times from 2000 to 2007, but the number of Greyhounds who did that racing is only a tiny fraction of that number. In any given year, there's 2-3k Greyhounds racing in Massachusetts. A typical Greyhound will only last racing for a few years, maybe 3 tops. Raynham and Wonderland aren't anywhere near big enough to handle 465 thousand dogs in 7 years. I'm not so sure that many dogs have raced across the entire country in that time.

But as my first link indicated, the track campaign - so far - has made it its goal to confuse the voters. I guess with so many newspapers coming around to the fact that the industry's made up its job numbers as it went along, they can't rely on convincing voters to vote for the tracks on jobs alone. Their only hope is to completely confuse the grassroots supporters who have rallied around phasing out greyhound racing in this state.

They also make this same claim in their newest internet ad:



I can only hope the media will do its job. Ballot question are confusing enough - campaigns should not be able to get away running on sleaze and disinformation. Just like their 100% adoption rate was made up, so too is their latest claim. When will all of this stop? It's past time that people who use these dirty tactics be held accountable - and, luckily, the voters can do that by voting Yes on 3.

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