Greyhound racing promoters are trying to pass legislation designed to re-open all three Kansas dog tracks!

SB 427/HB 2545 seeks to encourage these long-closed facilities to come alive again with thousands of slot machines. Owner Phil Ruffin, a Las Vegas billionaire, would be allowed to keep as much as 50% of the profits – but only as long as he offers live dog racing. We cannot let this happen!

Greyhound racing has killed and injured thousands of dogs nationwide in only the past few years. Tell Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer and the state legislature not to let it back in the state.

Commercial greyhound racing began in Kansas in 1989 with the opening of Wichita Greyhound Park and The Woodlands. A third track, Camptown, opened in 1995 but closed just six months later. All three facilities experienced catastrophic financial losses and thankfully, live dog racing ended with the shutdown of The Woodlands in 2008.

But the dogs paid the price until the very end. In the last six-month season of racing at The Woodlands, eighty dogs suffered broken legs and backs and other injuries. A total of nineteen dogs were killed.

Greyhound racing is a dying industry, illegal in 40 states. It proved to be a bad experiment for Kansas, with a 95% decline in gambling forcing the facilities to close. It makes little sense to bring this industry back.

And slot machine subsidies are anti free-market and do not work. This idea has been tried in multiple other states and failed. The state of Iowa was losing $14 million a year promoting greyhound racing, and today West Virginia, which also subsidizes the industry, has seen attendance levels drop by as much as 99%. The tracks in Florida lose a total of $35 million a year on dog racing, because wagering has declined by almost 100% in the last remaining big dog racing state!

The dogs lose, too. Since 2008, the year that dog racing ended in Kansas, 15,000 greyhound injuries were reported in other states, including broken backs and legs, spinal cord paralysis and death by cardiac arrest.

Now is not the time to bring back this cruelty.

Tell Governor Colyer and the Kansas State House and Senate not to bring the inhumane practice of greyhound racing back!