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By Katherine Gregg
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A Massachusetts-based animal-protection organization is pushing to bring greyhound racing to a permanent end in Rhode Island and by extension, New England.
Legislative leaders have not indicated a willingness to consider any newly introduced bills when they return to Smith Hill for a two-day special session Oct 28-29.
But the organization known as Grey2K USA has mounted a "Dear Friends'' e-mail campaign urging the scores of people on its e-mail list to: "Please e-mail and call your state senator and state representative today and...tell them that Rhode Island is the last New England State in which dog racing is legal and operational and it is time for this cruelty to end.''
The GREY2K e-mail also urges defeat of an effort to force Twin River to run a full 200-day greyhound racing season.
The slot parlor wants to suspend dog-racing but Rhode Island lawmakers passed a bill that would have required the full season. Governor Carcieri vetoed the bill, but greyhound breeders are urging the Assembly to override the veto.
The 200-day requirement was tacked onto a bill, vetoed by Carcieri in June, that would have also allowed the bankrupt track and slot parlor to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Twin River suspended dog-racing in August, after it completed the minimum 125 racing dates required by law.
With the Twin River bankruptcy case still winding its way through federal court, state legislative leaders have not definitively stated whether they will attempt to override Carcieri's veto.
In the months since the regular legislative session ended in June, Twin Rivers' owners and the greyhound owners association have reached a preliminary agreement, that reportedly entails the payment of $5 million, in installments, in lieu of the slot parlor's $9 million annual subsidy of the dog-racing end of the business.
It remains unclear what the future of racing would be under the terms of the agreement, and the state could have some say over it because any deal between the slot parlor and the greyhound owners which calls for less than 125 days of racing at Twin River would need legislative approval.
Twin River operates more than 4,700 video-lottery terminals under a legislative mandate requiring it to play host to live pari-mutuel betting events on at least 125 days a year. It reached that 125-day limit for 2009 on Aug. 8, but will have to resume hosting races in 2010.
The e-mail entreaty from GREY2K was signed by the group's president, Christine Dorchak, and executive director Carey Theil.
