Trouble dogging Revere track

REVERE A new push to ban dog racing in Massachusetts places the struggling Wonderland Greyhound Park into two separate fights for survival.Last week, the Committee to Protect Dogs submitted enough signatures to put a question on the state-wide ballot in November 2008 asking voters to prohibit dog racing.As Wonderland battles to stay alive in the face of legalization of casino gambling, its owners and 600 employees must fight a new battle to keep their livelihood.Yet, dog-racing opponents have some unlikely supporters. Even some bettors say greyhounds are probably being abused.”I agree. I think it’s cruelty to animals,” said track patron Eddie Smith as he sat with a tiny group of people watching simulcast races at Wonderland Sunday night.Dog-racing opponents collected state data from Wonderland and Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park n the state’s only two live dog racing tracks n showing that since 2002, there have been 728 greyhound injuries. Eighty percent of those were broken bones.Phil Orlandella, 62, of Saugus, says the greyhounds probably do suffer abuse, but so do race horses and other types of competitive animals.”Those same people should consider not using whips on horse racing,” Orlandella said. “If you’re going to do one, you should do ?em all.”Both Orlandella and Smith say it wouldn’t be a big deal if live racing had to end in Massachusetts.”Like anything else, it’s more or less a habit,” Smith said. “It’s a gambling thing. You could always find something else to do.”If Wonderland closes, “we’d probably end up at another track that has simulcasting,” Orlandella said.The roughly 12 people watching simulcasts on Sunday night represent a larger problem for the racetrack: significantly fewer people attend races than years ago and the track has suffered a large drop in revenue.Wonderland had a 46 percent gross revenue decline in live betting from 2005 to 2006.The dog-racing opponents’ effort to take a bite out of Wonderland’s business couldn’t have come at a worse time. In January, state legislatures shot down a proposal to put slot machines at the track in an attempt to save dwindling revenue. And now, with the real possibility that casino gambling will soon become legal n and the potential unwillingness of state officials to allow Wonderland to build a resort casino at its location n the track could be in serious trouble.”It’s time to stop this cruelty to dogs,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, which is among the groups supporting the Massachusetts ballot initiative.The Humane Society of the United States contributed $100,000 to the ballot committee last month, Pacelle said.Many opponents say greyhounds are confined to small cages for long periods and during races risk serious injuries such as broken legs and heart attacks. They argue the health of dogs should outweigh the entertainment value of racing.But not all are buying that argument.Sidney Paul, 84, of Salem, says it would be a shame if the ballot question passed because “you gotta keep it going.””Tell these do-gooders to go back where they belong,” said Paul, who has attended races at Wonderland for about 60 years. “They’re interferers. (The dogs) are better kept than most animals in the world.”Paul estimates the racetrack used to average 5,000 visitors a night.”The business is going to die by itself anyway. People have slowly stopped betting,” he said. “It’s only a question of time.”State Rep. Robert DeLeo, whose tried for several years to help bring slots to Wonderland, said in August that Wonderland and Suffolk Downs would not get lost in the political shuffle as politicians try to legalize casino gambling.”For casinos to move forward, tracks have to be part and parcel of that solution,” DeLeo said.Also in August, Wonderland President Richard Dalton said the track is preparing to unveil plans in the near future, but wouldn’t discuss details.(Material from the Associated Press was used in this article.)