Kansas City News Blog

Kate Bressler

My name is Grand.

Then you thought wrong.

I thought wrong, too. I got curious after reading this story about adopted greyhounds in our sister paper. And I learned that, despite the fact that the greyhound racetrack in Kansas, the Woodlands, closed in August 2008, Kansas is still a large greyhound-breeding state. It's also home to the National Greyhound Association and the Greyhound Hall of Fame, both located in Abilene, Kansas, aka "The Greyhound Capital of the World."

This week, Abilene hosts a huge greyhound meet-up. From Thursday through Sunday, breeders, trainers, rescue agencies, adoption groups and trailers upon trailers full of dogs will descend upon the town.

Kate Bressler is the founder of Greyhound Support in Kansas City, an organization that links dogs to rescue groups and delivers them cross-country by way of a converted Greyhound bus. Bressler says that in preparation for the Abilene convention, tonight is Spa Night for 13 of the dogs in her kennel. "They'll be getting baths, vaccinations, ear cleanings, pedicures, starting from 5:30 until we're done," she says. Pictures of some of them are here.

When the Woodlands closed, Bressler's organization got all 162 of the racing dogs from the facility adopted by mid-October of last year, she says.

Shannon Henson of GPA MoKan, the local chapter of the nonprofit adoption group Greyhound Pets of America, says some of the largest greyhound farms are in Oklahoma and Kansas. "The public in general thinks that since the tracks have closed in Kansas, there's no longer a greyhound overpopulation problem," Henson says."But there always will be, as long as there are any tracks operating anywhere in the country." Currently, there are two operating dog tracks in Texas, two in Arizona, two in Iowa, one in Wisconsin, and a ton in Florida.

Plus, she says, she hears rumors that investors are thinking about re-opening the Woodlands.

Greyhounds, Bressler says, date back to ancient Egypt and are the only breed of dog mentioned in the Bible. To see the Woodstock of greyhound meet-ups -- and a potentially record-breaking amount of butt-sniffing, if there is a record for such things -- check out Abiline this weekend.