By Dennis McKeon
copyright, 2019. The original post can be found here.
It cannot escape one's notice, that the focus of some, and in other countries, many adoption agencies, is on what we call "pity adoptions". This usually entails advertising greyhounds who are available for adoption, as having endured a lifetime and a litany of alleged abuses, and expects that the reader will infer that the truly aberrational is the norm, for all greyhounds. It tugs at heart strings and even entices the occasional adopter to act.
The problem with the pity adoption---irrespective of whether or not it has any veracity applicable to the individual---is that the average, would be greyhound adopter, is not looking to adopt a basket case of emotional disorder and trauma-induced stress.
The average adopter is looking to adopt a good-natured, easily manageable, companionable pet. The pity adoption---usually the modus operandi of political activist adoption agencies---turns away far many more potential adopters than it attracts. Pity, and the wholesale broad-brushing of an entire class of people as abusers, and an entire population of greyhounds as their victims, may be an effective strategy to raise funds for political action---but it is a terrible way to expand adoption opportunities for greyhounds.
The ordinary, every-day, blue collar greyhound, is a far more interesting and attractive character, when he is cast in real-life terms of what is normal, rather than what is the exception. A pure, purpose bred canine, completed by the expression of function, not bred to be a pet, but who makes a splendid one anyway---with an ancient, feral streak that is held just beneath very thin skin---who is informed, impelled and enhanced by a colonial greyhound culture, that is, in its pack-centricity, dynamics and its handing down, in some respects, reminiscent of wild canines, left to their own devices.
Until adoption groups let go of the pity angle, and open their minds, and those of potential adopters, to the actual and unique experience of the overwhelming majority of well-adapted and well-adjusted, perfectly content, performance greyhounds, adoption of retired greyhounds will continue to be problematic, if not a non-starter (no pun intended) for many people.