The Dairyland Greyhound racetrack near Kenosha is on its last legs. All signs point to the dog track tucking its tail by year's end.
That’s giving dog advocates fits, because, if the track indeed closes, all those dogs will need homes.
"They're fighting a losing battle," Linda Cliff of Central Illinois Greyhound Adoption, which works to place Dairyland greyhounds in homes around the country, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I'm already getting calls from Dairyland dog owners. I haven't talked to anybody who said the track will stay open."
All told there are nearly 900 dogs that will need homes after the track closes and adoption workers believe they can only place between 300 and 600 in homes and at other tracks around the country.
"It will be a massive undertaking," Cliff said. "There are fewer and fewer tracks left in the country, and we'll be in big trouble."
The Dairyland track opened in 1990 to much fanfare. But it has been steadily losing money since. Last year it lost $3.4 million dollars; the year before $2.82; before that, $2.84 and so on.
Cliff has some ideas.
She believes the track could find a way to stay afloat with simulcasts of races from other tracks. That could provide enough revenue to feed the puppies until homes can be found.
Cliff’s group has managed to place 475 Dairyland greyhounds so far this year.
