Greyhound Rescue is a small, non profit, Australian organisation run by Janet and Peter who started out working under the umbrella of the charity DABS, one of the longest running small animal rescues in Sydney. However, we have recently been issued with our own Charitable Fundraising Authority and so we are now completely independent of others. At the time of writing we have twenty one greyhounds looking for homes, some with foster carers but also some in paid kennels, costing $100 per dog per week, so we urgently need more foster carers and also help to pay for these kennels.
Janet has been working in dog rescue for over 20 years, doing whatever has been necessary at the time, shovelling pooh, washing dirty blankets, squaring up to people treating animals badly, making coats and doonas, donating her own money, you name it, she has done it.
We had our first greyhound about 1995, an ex Irish racer named Susie. She was eleven at the time and looked as if she was very soon bound for ‘Rainbow Bridge’*. However, she spent two years with us and that experience made us realise just how beautiful, affectionate and social greyhounds really are and what wonderful pets they make. They really are ‘40mph couch potatoes’.
We returned to Australia, from England, in September 2001 bringing with us four dogs, including a saluki, which is like a greyhound, and 2 cats. The much loved Saluki died of bone cancer three years later, after extensive surgery and chemo.
After this loss we adopted two greyhounds of our own, Princess and Britney, who are now 11 and 10 years old respectively. We then became involved with rescuing and saving a number of greyhounds in trouble and this was the real beginning of our ‘love affair’ with greyhounds. They are such beautiful dogs, gentle, affectionate, make ideal pets and do not deserve to be euthanaised, at the age of 3-4 years, just because they are considered too old to win a race. Or at the age of 1-2 years of age, they are found to be a second too slow and do not even make it on to the race track. The average life expectancy for a greyhound is 12-14 years and thousands only live a quarter of that time, or less. What a terrible waste of such beautiful animals.
So we, among other groups, try to save as many greyhounds as we can when they have finished their racing career, or failed to start one, and end up in the Pounds, destined for ‘Rainbow Bridge’.
I am a retired teacher and we have raised a family of three children and now have six grandchildren. We try to raise money to support our rescue by doing garage sales, sausage sizzles and selling boxes of chocolates. Some pet stores are very generous and help us and we get the occasional donation, but generally the costs of desexing, microchipping, vaccinating, heartworm testing, dental work and kennelling, if foster carers are not available, far outweighs the funds available.
It is important for us to have the greyhounds in a home environment where they can adjust from a life in kennels to the everyday happenings around a house, people, vacuuming, TV, dishwashers, pools, other animals, etc, etc.
However, we cannot take any more dogs at the moment while we are paying so much in kennel fees, which means that more beautiful greyhounds will be euthanaised in the pounds. If we had more foster carers and funds then we could save more greyhounds.
Our hope is that Greyhound Rescue will home more greyhounds and bring in more foster carers, funds and help, all of which we desperately need.
Until then we just soldier on.
Janet and Peter
* ‘Rainbow Bridge’ is a euphemism for doggy heaven.
