ohmidog!

Tucson Greyhound Park CEO Tom Taylor was put in an awkward spot late last year by a local TV reporter — but as GREY2K sees it, that’s exactly where he belongs.

GREY2K, a national organization seeking to end greyhound racing, combined pieces of the TV news report with its own material and subsequent photos taken during a county inspection, and is circulating the ensuing video widely.

It’s an attempt to show how those who defend the sport will go to great lengths — possibly in the opposite direction of the truth — to spin things their way.

When a TV reporter showed Taylor undercover video footage taken by GREY2K investigators of the less than luxurious living conditions of the park’s greyhounds, he responded that it’s a subjective thing:

“I could show you a picture of the Mona Lisa, and you could say ‘Oh, that’s horrible,’” he said.

In the interview last December with KOLD television, Taylor called Tucson Greyhound Park an “ideal place for dogs.”

Then he refused to allow reporters to see the kennels for themselves, saying that that the TV station would “show it to thousands of people, and we don’t know how they’re going to take it.”

GREY2K says more recent photographs taken at the Tucson track over the past year by Pima County investigators confirm their findings: greyhounds living in warehouse style kennels, in wire cages barely large enough for them to stand up or turn around, many of them muzzled.

Anti-dog racing groups say Mardi Gras Casino & Resort in Nitro, West Virginia, has had an alarming number of greyhound injuries over the past six years — more than one a day.

West Virginia Racing Commission records analyzed by Massachusetts-based Grey2K USA show that, in addition to 1.4 injuries a day, 152 dogs were euthanized during that period, only seven of those because of illnesses.

Carey Theil, executive director of Grey2K, the anti-dog racing agency that spent years trying to obtain the records, told the Charleston Daily Mail that the numbers are the highest the group has seen at any U.S. track.

An ASPCA spokesperson called the figures “appalling.”

Track executive Dan Adkins said the number of injuries has dropped the past two years and is near the national average.

Adkins insists dog health is a top priority for the track’s parent company, Hartman and Tyner Inc. of Hallandale, Fla. Out of more than 43,400 racing starts last year, he said, there were only 25 deaths.

The records show about 750 broken bones, and more than 300 career-ending injuries.

Grey2K says the true number could be even higher than state records indicate because more than 13 months of data is missing. The Racing Commission told the Daily Mail it could not find those records.

The owner and operator of a kennel at the Pensacola Greyhound Track neglected 22 dogs to the point that she had to have them euthanized, investigators in Florida say.

The State Department of Business and Professional Regulation initiated an investigation into Billie Ard, the owner of W.R. Etheredge Kennel at the track, after a tipster from a Florida greyhound rescue group reported animals had been neglected and euthanized.

Investigators said they found evidence that Ard’s greyhounds had been underfed, and kept in unsanitary conditions, TV station WEAR in Florida reported.

“Upon entering the kennel it was apparent from the overwhelming urine smell… that the bedding materials in the crates had not been cleaned in quite some time. The smell was so strong and overwhelming that it burned the eyes,” investigators reported. They noted that the dogs also appeared to be underfed.

In August of 2009, a local veterinarian euthanized 22 of the dogs.

“This severe case of animal neglect calls into question the ability of track management to monitor the health and welfare of dogs at their facility,” said Carey Theil of Grey2k USA, a national greyhound protection group.

Ard lost her license as a result of investigation, but does not face any criminal charges.

All of the dogs that were in Ard’s care at the time of the investigation have since been placed with other kennels or adopted out.

Massachusetts voters yesterday approved a measure that will ban greyhound racing in the state by 2010.

“This is a victory for everyone in Massachusetts who cares about dogs,” said Christine Dorchak, co-chairwoman of the Committee to Protect Dogs.

The ban, which takes effect in 2010, passed 56 percent to 44 percent, with more than two-thirds of the precincts reporting, according to the Boston Globe:

“The contentious ballot question passed amid emotional ad campaigns by both sides. Proponents used images of sad-eyed greyhounds that they say are caged inhumanely and raced to injury, while opponents put the spotlight on the employees who would be out of work if the ballot passed.”

A similar ballot question was narrowly defeated in 2000, but this time around voters strongly supported the measure, despite track owners’ arguments that the ban would cost jobs at a time of economic hardship.

“We did it. We did it for the dogs,” a victorious Carey Thiel, executive director of Grey2K USA, said at a postelection party of some 60 supporters at Jillian’s Billiards Club. “For 75 years, greyhounds in our state have endured terrible confinement and suffered serious injuries. We’re better than that.”

The Committee to Protect Dogs used data kept by the State Racing Commission since mid-2002 showing injuries to more than 800 greyhounds.

Formed by Grey2K USA, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Medical Center, the committee spent nearly $500,000 through Oct. 15, campaign finance reports show, and received about $144,000 in in-kind contributions.