In Memoriam - the Ebro greyhounds

It's been about 10 days ago now since I first heard the name 'Ronnie Williams'.

How I wish I never did.

First, I heard that dogs had 'disappeared' from his kennel. 

And in reality, that was true. 
They did disappear, for three or four weeks, during which their final days were unimaginable.

Racing greyhounds 'disappear' all of the time. 
They break legs, backs or necks on the track - and they 'disappear', never to return to the racing kennel. 
They get loaded onto haulers when they are no longer competitive - and they 'disappear', never to be seen again.
They 'go back to the farm' for breeding, and 'disappear' after they are no longer useful.

I've come to believe that for many people in the dog racing industry, the racing greyhound's 'disappearing act' is an unspoken truth.  An unfortunate reality.  A cost of doing business.

But perhaps, even for those of us who know the truth, ignorance is bliss.  For those of us whose hearts break at the thought of any greyhound suffering for the dying sport of dog racing, 'disappearance' is a whole lot easier to deal with than hard, cold facts.

Ronnie Williams' racing kennel full of greyhounds didn't 'disappear'. 
Their deaths weren't 'a cost of doing business'.
And thankfully, their murders are no longer an unspoken truth.

The emerging facts about their suffering and deaths is more than hard to deal with.

I am haunted by it, and I know many others are too.

Ronnie Williams made a conscious decision to starve 40 - 50 greyhounds to death.

Over a period of 3+ weeks, he left those dogs in their stacked wire cages in a dark building with no food, no water, and no freedom.

They lay for days on end in their own urine and feces, and he purposely deprived them of sustenance. 

One by one, they died.  And as the smell of decomposition seeped from the kennel building, he covered up his heinous acts with lies.

He walked into that racing kennel every single day, striding past innocent lives teetering on the brink of death, and past those who'd already perished.

He hardened his heart against creatures who wanted nothing more than to live and to be loved, and he let them die, one by one, slowly and painfully. 

For anyone who has shared their life with a dog, let alone a greyhound, imagining the final days of those greyhounds' lives is heartwrenching.  The grief that I have been feeling for those dogs is impossible for me to express.

I treasure every day with our greyhounds.  I feel lucky to have them, because I know how easily it could have been that they didn't survive their 'racing careers'.  I appreciate every day I have with them, because I know it could be their last.

This past week, loving them and living with them has been particularly poignant for me.  Looking into their loving eyes, and watching them play, sleep and eat has made me thankful for the lives my greyhounds have, and heartbroken for the greyhounds whose lives Ronnie Williams so heartlessly, cruelly ended.

In loving memory of the Ebro greyhounds - I will never forget.