When Florida’s voters overwhelmingly approved a ban on betting on dog races earlier this year, many saw it as the U.S. industry’s death knell. “Florida really was the industry,” Carey Theil, with advocacy group Grey2K, told writer Craig Pittman. Dog racing still exists in nations such as Ireland, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand.



Now thousands of greyhounds, raised for racing, need adopting. (Above, greyhounds stretch their legs at Florida’s Farmer Racing. They’re wearing muzzles in part because they have thin skin and little body fat, so even playful nips can cause serious injury.)

Though they can sprint more than 40 miles per hour, they’re actually big couch potatoes, greyhound owners say. Some people describe them as straight-up lazy! They’re