Hopkinton, You're Better Than That: The Greyhound Controversy

Many of our friends have been discussing the Greyhound Friends debacle, with most of them predicting that the town selectmen would never allow the group to reopen after all that we now know about what dogs endured in that kennel. I agreed with this too. After all, these were not small problems. Greyhound Friends neglected sick dogs. This was documented extensively in a report by the state veterinarian — A report that inexplicably never made it into the hands of the judge in the Greyhound Friends director’s criminal trial.

But now it appears from an article in this week's MetroWest Daily News that the town plans to let Greyhound Friends reopen as long as the kennel passes a rudimentary inspection and they promise to do better. I cannot fathom why this would be the outcome.

Our town gave Greyhound Friends chance after chance in the past. And what did they do? They lied to us. They mistreated dogs. They kept breaking laws. And now it seems they may have lied to their donors too. On top of everything else, the charity is being investigated for claims that they misused money donated to help rescue dogs.

I'm all for animal rescue but this group has been shut down at least three times for improper care of animals, brought dogs with contagious diseases into our town, neglected dogs they were supposed to be rescuing, and continually thumbed their nose at the very basic town and state regulations in place to protect dogs.

As someone who follows animal welfare cases, I’ve seen a lot of people get a slap on the wrist after neglecting animals. This is the sad reality, due to inadequate animal welfare laws. But to be allowed to reopen again and continue harming dogs? This seems unreasonable. How could any of us believe that animals were safe there?

Hopkinton, We can do better than this. Please write to the town at the email addresses below and urge them to say no to a kennel license for Greyhound Friends.

selectmen@hopkintonma.gov
nkhumalo@hopkintonma.gov
cdegan@hopkintonma.gov

The O’Brien family (and our dog Rudy)
Hopkinton, MA