By Kerry Herbert
“Do greyhounds make great pets?” This is the question I am most often asked when people discover my deep interest in these dogs, whose lives have been my focus over a decade of scholarly activism and doctoral research.
My answer: It’s complicated. And quite probably, it isn’t the right question.
In this blog, I argue we should continue re-imagining the future lives of the US’s most commodified dog (Rice, 2018) but the way we do this requires radical re-thinking.
Whilst greyhounds have endured circa 100 years of oppressive utilitarian entanglements with humans, public rejection of the mass killings of unwanted racing dogs has created a perfect storm. Populations of homeless greyhounds, whose “redemptive capital” renders them “too valuable to be killable” (McKee, 2015; 40) are increasingly repurposed for the ‘pet’ market. Routinely described as calm, gentle and low maintenance companions, these greyhound mythologies have simply transformed imaginations of greyhounds from commodities into caricatures. Harms perpetrated through commercial racing’s commodity circuits are widely discussed (Knight, 2018; Stevens et al, 2021; Arcari, 2023), yet comparatively little critique connects how these residues of harm materially manifest as greyhounds attempt to navigate their post-racing ‘pet’ worlds.
An extract from my fieldwork diary following a first adoption meet reflects my attempts to grapple with these inequities:
Jimmy quietly trotted out, following close to my leg in that slightly robotic way so many ex-race dogs seem to do, adapting his own locomotion to track my trajectory, a strategy which perhaps he has learnt will result in the least amount of tension to his neck. A party of adults waited; four women and one man. Jimmy headed straight for the man and stopped directly before him. This reminded me how ex-racers often gravitate toward men or avoid them entirely. There rarely seems to be a middle ground. On this occasion, Jimmy didn’t exactly greet the man; rather he positioned himself to be greeted, although I’m not sure this distinction was noted by the humans. For as soon as Jimmy was close enough to touch, all five humans were visibly enveloped by the emotional swell of the moment. I observed, with intrigue, as Jimmy remained still and compliant, the gentle ‘cheek puff’ his only indicator of discontent. I lost count of how many hands were touching him.
My work attempts to better understand these relational encounters including the ways they are shaped by histories of coercion and control. In respect of greyhounds whom we may perceive as compliant (like Jimmy in the above extract) or calm (like Pingu, pictured above), I urge reconsideration of the ‘quiet’ greyhound, and the language we use to describe them. By repositioning essentialised traits like calmness, gentleness and quietness as shadows of a malevolent past, I call on activists, advocates and rescuers to collaborate in re-imagining greyhounds.
Returning to our starting point, if “Do greyhounds make great pets?” is perhaps not the right question, what is?
Maybe we could begin by asking: “How can we better represent caring for damaged life?”
References
Arcari, P. (2023). Slow violence against animals: Unseen spectacles in racing and at zoos. Geoforum, 144, pp.1-14.
Knight, A. (2018). Injuries in racing greyhounds. Technical Report. UK: Greyt Exploitations.
McKee, T., V., S. (2015). ‘The cost of a second chance. Life, death, and redemption among prison inmates and Thoroughbred ex-racehorses in Bluegrass Kentucky’, in Lopez, P. J. and Gillespie, K. A. Eds. Economies of Death. Routledge.
Rice, S. (2018). ‘Educational Experiences in Prison: Greyhounds and Humans Teaching and Learning Together.’ In Rice, S., Rud, A.G. Eds. The Educational Significance of Human and Non-Human Interactions. New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
Stevens, E. G., Baker, T. & Lewis, N. (2021). Dealing with sentient surplus: A moral economy of greyhound rehoming. EPE: Nature and Space, 0 (0), pp.1-19.