ohmidog!

Comment from Alicia Heiserer
Time February 8, 2012 at 11:40 am

Good Morning,
The film company that Skechers hired to do the ad needed a Greyhound Track to film at, they did not want to build one from scratch but need one to use as a stage for their ad. And it was a stage for their commercial.
Now when they shot they commercial they had no plans on using the Tucson Greyhound Park name at all. If you noticed the commentators had British accents, thus the use of the name Rexford Downs giving it that European effect.
That was decided well before Grey2k even knew the commercial was going to be made.
For Grey2k to think that the company made changes to the ad because of their petition, when the ad was completed months before, borders on Narcissism.
Tucson Greyhound Park was a stage, and they dress stages up all the time and that is all.

Comment from Bruce Walters
Time February 8, 2012 at 12:06 pm

Major defeat for Grey2KUSA. The Skechers ad finished fifth on USA TODAY’s Super Bowl Ad-O-Meter, and Skechers stock has jumped from $12 a share on February 1 to $14 today.

Comment from Bruce Walters
Time February 8, 2012 at 1:09 pm

Look at :19 of the video where the crowd in the grandstand stands up. That’s a HORSE track, not a greyhound track.

Comment from Eric Jackson
Time February 8, 2012 at 1:12 pm

Alicia, I think you misunderstand the article. GREY2K USA is not claiming the track was modified because of the petition. The necessity of sprucing up this nasty place lends credence, support, to the idea that TGP is a hole. It’s a disgusting place where dogs are injured, maimed, and killed every year. Skechers should have heeded the advice of the greyhound adoption/rescue group they first contacted to get greyhounds and come up with a better idea.

Comment from jwoestendiek
Time February 8, 2012 at 2:50 pm

Given that, maybe shareholders, or the company, should do something nice for greyhounds.

john / ohmidog!

Comment from Alicia Heiserer
Time February 8, 2012 at 3:35 pm

Come on Eric, come on over. You mentioned you were not ever invited here. I am inviting you. Come for a walk with me, meet the employees that work here in this Hole as you call it. Many have been here 20+ years and you are insulting them. Greyhound Racing is not what it was before the fast attraction of the Casino’s and there is no way we can compete with them. Quick, easy fix, you don’t even have to think when you put your money in the slot machines.
So we are not as pretty as we once were, but we are a hell of a lot better and safer then ever for these Great Animals that love to run.

Comment from Brian Witt
Time February 8, 2012 at 4:26 pm

Grey2K is really grasping at straws suggesting that cosmetics have anything to do with track safety. Since they are so concerned about reality, here it comes: In reality, the name on the sign has no influence on track safety. In reality, those 4 foot wooden planter boxes added on the computerized version would be a safety concern when the racers make their way around the track and pass the starting gate area out of the final bend. In addition the computerized version pulls the entire starting box out from under the sign area and nearer to the track oval. This would also be a safety hazard. The starting box is tucked back away from the oval for safety. The reality is that the real Tucson track is safer than the spruced up computer version. Rather than bashing Tuscon Greyhound Park, they should be commended for not taking track maintenance funds and wasting them on bushes and a fresh coat of paint. Thank goodness Grey2K is not in charge of track maintenance dollars. Grey2K just keeps getting more and more rediculous every day. How did ohmidog not recognize the rediculousness of this article? Grey2K is 0 for 2 recently with pushing this article on folks and also posting Grey2K USA board member Karyn Zoldan’s racist blog comment suggesting that gambling on greyhound races should end because ”Middle class educated white people don’t go to bet on the dogs”. Really? Wise up Grey2K.

Comment from Cynthia Branch
Time February 8, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Not only am I a dog lover, but for the past 20 years I have been a greyhound lover. And frankly, I have NEVER had a dog whine as much and as continuously as G2K has about this ad. Skechers had it filmed. It ran. Get over it, and yourselves.
Was the track spiffed up, or altered digitally? Not only do I not know, but I do not CARE. If you think the location of a photo shoot – EVERY photo shoot – is left as is, with no clean-up paint up-fix-up whatsoever, you are seriously mistaken. (Ask the folks in Indy if the city looks the same the week AFTER the Super Bowl as it did in the months leading up to it.)
G2K and HSUS – among a few others – have an agenda that involves constant badgering to facilitate fundraising – and very little actual help for the animals they claim to care about so deeply.
If G2K really cares about greyhounds, maybe they should find a president who knows enough about the breed to actually hold her dog’s leash while out on a public street, protesting a Skechers store.

Comment from Mick
Time February 8, 2012 at 10:07 pm

I invite anyone to come down for a tour. Ask for me. Don’t sneak around and act suspicious like when Grey2K is here. Yes, we are aware they come and take pictures at track side, this is not illegal. However ripping photos from TGP’s web page and using them for their own purposes is. BTW, the photos have a copy-write and I allowed TGP to use them freely. Be very careful about which tactics you use G2K.
Security Director
Tucson Greyhound Park

Comment from Eric Jackson
Time February 8, 2012 at 11:58 pm

The description of Tucson Greyhound Park comes from your fellow racing industry insiders. Even they consistently list TGP as one of the worst, if not the worst, track in the country.

Comment from Eric Jackson
Time February 9, 2012 at 12:00 am

Here’s footage from inside a kennel at TGP: http://www.grey2kusa.org/azVideo.html

You didn’t see this on the Skechers commercial.

Comment from Eric Jackson
Time February 9, 2012 at 12:01 am

Here’s what’s wrong with greyhound racing in Arizona: http://www.grey2kusa.org/azInjuries.html

Comment from Brian Witt
Time February 9, 2012 at 11:41 am

Eric – Were you there when that rediculous Grey2K video was filmed? I’m curious if you are being duped or if your also OK with stopping at nothing to mislead people. That video you Grey2K folks coordinated inside a kennel is the one of the most rediculous things I’ve seen out of your group. I’ve spent days in a row visiting my dogs at the tracks, hanging out and watching the trainers and kennel help work. Each time the day began before sun rise and ended after sunset. The guys were constantly busy caring for the dogs and none of the work could be done in the dark, with the lights off. It’s incredible what people will buy into. The only time the lights were ever out during my visits were when we left for an hour for lunch and the dogs were resting, and for about 6 hours overnight. Don’t most people also prefer to rest with the lights out? Regardless, congratulations on duping them into keeping the lights off for that old video. I’ve heard they were told to keep the lights out because “our cameras film better in low light”. LOL People go out of the way to accomidate you folks, even when it is that rediculous. As for the fences around the compound, those are for the protection of the dogs, to keep people from tampering with them to influence the racing. Greyhound racing is highly regulated by the state racing commisions and the rules and enforcement are remarkable. I’m friends with the trainers that keep my dogs and I can’t even come and go as I please. The trainers are responsible for the dogs and for this reason the rules are in place to make sure they can be held responsible for everything that goes on with their dogs. If people could come and go as they please then if the state tried to enforce regulation there would be fingers pointing everywhere because anyone could have handled the dog. When I visit the kennels I have the trainer come out and meet me at the guard shack, check in with the guard, get a visitors pass from the guard and then am free to visit with the trainer and the dogs as long as I wish. The policy is in place for the dogs. Unless you spend a day, or days, at a kennel you will continue to be duped by your own groups propaganda. When Grey2K goes out of there way to fool Joe Public, I’m surprised you still get invitations to visit from people like Alicia. You should take her up on that offer and see things for yourself.

Those that haven’t been brainwashed by the clever money raising scam that calls themselves Grey2K may be interested in a couple videos that more accurately portray the kennels and those that run them. A few minute long video can’t capture the full days experience though. Until you experience a couple days of kennel life, you have no idea the amount of work that goes into caring for the greyhounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HPkjLtyTfo4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mRjLRLdasIM#!

Comment from Alicia Heiserer
Time February 9, 2012 at 12:09 pm

Eric’s videos…..You paid off a trainer to make it look dark and dingy and those dogs have just come in from turn out and had not had a chance to get the muzzles off yet. You snuck in there as a friend and told them to keep the lights off. And yes, the public is not allowed in there without a permission as per State regulations and for the dogs benefits not to hide anything.
That is their home and who would want people walking through their home at anytime of day. Nap time, dinner time. You want someone just coming into your house Eric. Second, an reported injury could be as minor as a broken toe nail, and those are reported all the time.
I have had enough for the time being, because nothing I can say to you is going to deviate you from your very narrow path.

Comment from Elaine
Time February 9, 2012 at 3:57 pm

I am so distressed that someone from my home town & state is so uninformed and conniving… However, looking at the links on this blog: HSUS, etc., it doesn’t surprise me.

Comment from Eric Jackson
Time February 9, 2012 at 9:23 pm

Alicia and Brian, do you have anything to support your assertion that a trainer was “paid off” to allow that filming? Brian, why would a person carrying a hidden camera suggest leaving the lights off to better film? That’s just a ridiculous assertion. And if the dogs just came in from a turn-out, where were the kennel staff? Why were the lights off in that kennel? Why were the dogs still wearing muzzles?

The video speaks for itself, and it represents at least one kennel at TGP.

Comment from Brian Witt
Time February 11, 2012 at 7:58 am

Eric – First of all, let me correct you. You addressed me asking about an assertion that I didn’t make. Whether or not Grey2k’s paid investigators, who were initially turned away, paid for the kennel’s participation in order to satisfy Grey2K and collect their payment is something that happened, you don’t know and I don’t know because neither of us was there. I think it’s possible, but don’t care either way. Either way, we know the approximately 54 seconds of film footage within the kennel, edited out of a 15 minute kennel visit, is representative of that 15 minute visit, whether it was typical or if the visit disrupted their process would need to be known to say if it was representative of the kennel for these 15 minutes.

I don’t know why a lot of the dogs had muzzles on, but Alicia’s explaination is reasonable. When dogs are turned out many kennels put them all back in their crate with the muzzles on and then remove them. Some close the doors and come back one by one and others close the door enough that the dog can’t get out and then remove the muzzle before fully closing the door. Either way works.

The dogs are attached to the trainers and kennel help so they all crowd around them as the let dogs get back into their crate. Many of them demand all the attention and will won’t be happy about all the other dogs demanding this attention. If they had their muzzle off before being secured it would defeat the purpose of putting muzzles on at turnout to protect them. We know the trainer had to go to the guard shack to let the investigators in, so if he had just let them back in their crates to go pick up the investigators then perhaps he didn’t get them removed yet. In that scenario the answer to your question of why the muzzles would still be on is because Grey2K interupted the kennel process with visitors. Although having muzzles off is preferable, they can eat and drink with them on and as you can see from the video, if they don’t want them on they will chew them off. As for the lights, as I type this my lights are off with a dog and cat in the room. They are perfectly content and show no signs of the dim light bothering them. I can’t read their minds, but I know when I watch TV or a movie I relax better with the lights off. That’s my preference. The video voice over says the dogs spent most of the day in total darkness. The visitors just got there so they wouldn’t know and clearly they were not in total darkness. The lighting seems to change throughout the video clips. Thanks to the time stamp we can see in the video about 1 min and 11 seconds in that it is very dark when the video time stamp reads 1100 from 49 seconds thru 52. I can only see back 3 crates and then it’s black. At 1 minute and 8 seconds into the video the time stamp reads 1100 and 56 seconds, just 4 seconds later I can see the crates all the way back to the back wall. That’s very odd. The time stamps are out of order but looking at the time stamps sequentially the lighting seems to start dim at 1055 coming in the door, the brighter at 1059 and 55 seconds (at 1 min 8 sec into the video), then dark for the video of the muzzle at 1100 and 49 to 52 seconds, then brighter 4 seconds later when we suddenly can see back to the back of the room rather than just 3 crates back. The lighting appears brighter at 1103, dimmer at 1104 and 1105, and then brighter at 1107. A minute later it’s dark again. I don’t care if the lights were flipped on and off for filming or if the camera was poor quality or whatever. Obviously it was brighter by the entryway, but that doesn’t explain most of the brightness changes. Does it matter? Not to me. I’ve never know dim lighting to be a safety concern for dogs and have never noticed them voicing or showing displeasure because of dim lighting. Like me, I think they find it relaxing based on their behaviour. Still, I’ve never witnessed kennel workers working with lights off so it still strikes me as odd . It they want to, more power to them, but lights make work easier. It’s hard to sweep and mop floors with low lighting. I assume lights are on for that. These dogs go about 6 hours each night in the dark so I know they survived the portion of the 15 minutes of this visit when the lighting was dim. Had this been a whole unedited video it might make more sense.

Anyway, this is just 15 minutes of the day so dim or bright lights during that 15 minutes is irrelovent. There is rarely a reason to have muzzles on for a dog in a crate so if this kennel wasn’t planning on taking them off, they should have been. I’ve never seen muzzles left on in crates long term so I will assume Alicia is right that they came in from turnout and then the guy had to go to the gaurdshack to escort visitors in before they all got removed.

Dim lights and muzzles for 15 minutes isn’t a problem and that all the time the date stamp indicates these visitors were there for. As I said earlier, spend a day in a kennel and you will know what goes of, otherwise you don’t know much.

Comment from Brian Witt
Time February 11, 2012 at 7:58 am

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dazzleme/sets/72157627145032411/

Comment from Joey
Time February 11, 2012 at 12:07 pm

When these Grey2K clowns get rid of greyhound racing, what’s next? Horse racing? Pro Football? Wha a bunch of money grubbing idiots.

Comment from Eric Jackson
Time February 11, 2012 at 7:15 pm

Joey, when’s the last time you saw football player killed for poor performance? When did you last see any professional athlete killed on the field? These are things that happen on too frequent a basis in greyhound racing.

Comment from Eric Jackson
Time February 11, 2012 at 7:21 pm

Brian, most cameras these days have onboard software to adjust for changing light conditions.

And this statement is a fine example of what’s wrong with this kennel: “if they don’t want [the muzzles] on they will chew them off.” No dog should be forced to chew through a muzzle. What it demonstrates to me is laziness on the part of that handler.