Florida Greyhounds coming to Centre County after state bans dog racing

PORT MATILDA – In November, Florida voters approved Amendment 13, which will end live greyhound racing in the state. The move has some animal lovers concerned about what will happen to all the dogs -- who will no longer needed for racing.

"I'm excited about it, they're so special,” said Toni Duchi, president of Nittany Greyhounds. “It really is a lot of fun when they come off the truck and they're wide eyed and they don’t know why they're here."

Nittany Greyhounds is finding homes for our four-legged best friends. The kennel will be welcoming five new ones from Tampa, Florida on Tuesday, after another race track closed.

"We kind of rehab them, check out their personalities, see how and what kind would best... for a family who's waiting," Duchi said.

Nittany Greyhounds has been hosting greyhounds for more than 20 years. And with the last tracks in Florida expected to close in 2020, they plan to continue to house dogs for as long as they can.

As of now, the facility does boarding in efforts to raise more money when residents travel or need their other dogs to be watched during the day.

"We do it for the love of the breed. Now, with the industry closing in Florida, that could change the breed. It could eliminate the racing greyhound altogether over time," Duchi said.

The state of Florida passed a referendum to end greyhound racing in the next few years.

There will be "a lot of dogs that are going to need to be moved in a short period of time, so what we're doing here is we're starting to just ramp up," Duchi said.

For now, there's isn’t a big concern about a big number of dogs needing homes.

The greyhound industry has one of the highest rescue percentages, at 98 percent. That means 98 percent of all dogs that retire are placed with adoption groups around the country, including here in Centre County.

Over the next few years, experts say up to 7,000 dogs could potentially need a new place, but organizers here aren't worried.

"Dog racing is probably going to stop and we'll be here,” Duchi said. “And we'll take every dog we can get."

About 11 more tracks will close in Florida within the coming years, so officials at Nittany Greyhounds said over the next year, they'll just be preparing. Nittany Greyhounds is neutral when it comes to the topic of greyhound racing.

Duchi notes that a lot of the work wouldn’t be possible without all the volunteers who help. Hundreds of people come in and help with anything they can.

Those who are interested in donating, adopting or volunteering with the nonprofit can log on to https://www.nittanygreys.org/.

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