1. September 2007: There are currently 35 dog tracks conducting live racing in 13 states; 8 tracks operate seasonally, 27 year-round.

1. Racing States and the number of racetracks in each are: Alabama (3), Arizona (2), Arkansas (1), Colorado (1), Florida (13), Iowa (2), Kansas (1), Massachusetts (2), New Hampshire (3), Rhode Island (1), Texas (3), West Virginia (2) and Wisconsin (1). The Wichita, Kansas track is scheduled to close October 6, 2007.

1. Eight states have banned live and/or simulcast dog racing since 1993. The states and the date the laws were enacted are: Maine 1993, Virginia 1995, Vermont 1995, Idaho 1996, Washington 1996, Nevada 1997, North Carolina 1998, and Pennsylvania 2004.

1. Dramatic declines in attendance and wagering handles have forced 27 tracks to cease live racing since 1991. Eight of the 27 no longer exist; ten remain open for simulcasting. The nine remaining racetracks are either up for sale, in varying states of disrepair, or awaiting state approval of “enhanced gambling options.”

1. Legislation passed since the 1990s allowed six greyhound tracks in four states to operate video lottery terminals (electronic slot machines) or coin-drop slot machines. Wagering handles on live greyhound racing at those tracks — Mardi Gras Greyhound Track [Florida]; Bluffs Run and Dubuque [Iowa]; Lincoln Park [Rhode Island]; Tri-State and Wheeling [West Virginia]; and Southland Park [Arkansas] — continue to plummet. However, because these tracks are licensed as pari-mutuel racing venues they are bound by statute to continue offering live racing. As a result, thousands of greyhounds are being bred to supply these tracks with a live “product” that is of little interest to the wagering public.

1. Recent changes in state racing statutes are expected to hasten the demise of live greyhound racing in Florida. Melbourne Greyhound Park ceased live racing on July 1, the same day legis-lation allowing racetrack card rooms to operate without live racing went into effect. Tampa Greyhound Park suspended live racing five weeks later. Wagering on live greyhound racing has declined dramatically in recent years, while card room revenues have exploded.

1. Historical Overview: According to breeding statistics compiled by the National Greyhound Association [NGA] and published monthly in The Greyhound Review, 128,593 litters were regis-tered from 1986 through 2006. Multiplying the number of litters by the industry standard of 6.52 pups-per-litter, 838,426 racing greyhounds were whelped [born] during this 21-year period.

1. The NGA, based in Abilene, Kansas, is the offi-cial registry for all racing greyhounds in North America, which includes Mexico. Greyhounds are tattooed by the age of three months and must be individually registered (named) prior to reaching the racing age of 12 to 18 months (varies by state).

1. Of the 838,426 greyhounds whelped from 1986 to 2006, 652,205 were individually registered, a difference of 186,221 young dogs eliminated from the system before reaching racing age. Because the rescue of farm dogs is rare, the majority of these culls are presumed dead.

1. A comparison of the published numbers against the combined number of greyhounds estimated to be racing: 28,000; alive on breed-ing and training farms: 28,000; and greyhounds that have been adopted: 179,000, indicates that more than 600,000 greyhounds have died in the 21-year period from 1986-2006.

1. On average, a revolving baseline of 1,000 dogs is required to sustain a mid-sized racetrack operation. New greyhounds are continually entering the system to replace greyhounds that grade-off due to injury, age or poor performance.

1. Between 1971-1990 the number of operating tracks nearly doubled to 56.This rapid expansion fueled a breeding frenzy that produced 450,000 greyhounds in the 1980s alone. Dog racing is a supply and demand business; as new tracks were built, increasing numbers of greyhounds were bred to supply them.

1. Recent Statistics: In 2006, 24,567 greyhounds were born. Of those, 22,951 entered the racing system. Approximately 14,800 graded-off grey-hounds were rescued and adopted. An esti-mated 8,567 greyhounds were killed. This number includes 1,616 farm culls and 6,951 “retirees” who were not rescued.