PENSACOLA, FLORIDA - Two greyhound protection groups held memorial gatherings across the nation Saturday to draw attention to the shooting deaths of up to 3,000 of the racing dogs whose remains were found in nearby Lillian, Ala. <br>
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Robert Rhodes, 68, a former security guard at Pensacola Greyhound Park, was charged with animal cruelty in Alabama after the remains were uncovered on his property in May. <br>
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``It's tragic that these beautiful animals were killed simply because they were no longer profitable at the racetrack,'' said Susan Netboy, founder of the Greyhound Protection League, based in San Francisco. <br>
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GREY2K USA, of Somerville, Mass., also participated in the gatherings scheduled for Pensacola and 20 other cities, including Orlando, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Mo., and Portland, Ore. <br>
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``This is an inherently cruel industry,'' said GREY2K USA president Carey Theil. ``Like cockfighting and dogfighting, it should be outlawed nationwide.'' <br>
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The Greyhound Protection League estimates 20,000 of the breed are killed every year nationwide. Dog racing is illegal in 34 states. <br>
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Rhodes admitted in interviews that he had been shooting injured or aging greyhounds for more than 40 years at the request of owners, sometimes collecting $10 per dog, but said he had gotten out of the business. <br>
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He claimed the dogs didn't suffer. Prosecutors disagreed, saying postmortem examinations of four carcasses showed only one dog had been shot cleanly through the brain while other three had bullet wounds in the neck and elsewhere. <br>
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As a result of the investigation, the Pensacola track fired Rhodes, two other guards and a kennel operator.
