History
Greyhounds
have been used for hunting and coursing in the Middle East and Europe
for at least 5,000 years, but it was not until the 1920s that dog racing
became a commercial enterprise in America. That decade and the next
five saw an explosion in the number of racetracks nationwide, as patrons
were drawn in by the combination of gambling and the seemingly harmless
spectacle of beautiful dogs out for a run. In the 1920s the International
Greyhound Racing Association, an industry organization, was formed to
regulate dog racing and try to control industry corruption. Its modern
successor is the National Greyhound Association.
Dog racing reached its peak in the 1980s. Since then, growing public awareness of the cruelty of dog racing and competition from other forms of gambling has steadily undermined racetrack patronage.
Commercial dog tracks are dying across the country, but continue to
survive in part due to tax breaks and handouts received from sympathetic
politicians.
