Gov. Jim Justice, R-WV., and “Baby Dog” appear during the Republican National Convention Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) Nearly a decade ago, I believed that the cruelty of greyhound racing was finally ending in West Virginia. A bill to end dog racing had passed the state Legislature, and landed on the desk of Gov. Jim Justice.
The legislation repealed a state law that mandates greyhound racing, and subsidizes it to the tune of $19 million per year, funds that could otherwise be used for important state programs such as fixing roads or health care. But that wasn’t my motivation. I have spent my life fighting for animals, and am proud to have served for decades as president of the Federation of Humane Organizations of West Virginia. Since our inception in 1994, we have been the only statewide group advocating for improving animal welfare throughout West Virginia.
The 2017 bill would have allowed West Virginia to step away from a dying industry that breeds thousands of greyhounds annually who are injured, confined and discarded when no longer profitable. I hoped the suffering and deaths were finally going to end, but it wasn’t to be. I was devastated when Justice vetoed the bill. The tracks stayed open. The subsidies kept flowing. The dogs kept running and dying at tracks in our state.
Roughly 4,000 greyhound injuries have occurred in West Virginia since that veto, including 1,367 dogs that suffered broken bones and 84 dogs that died on the track. Dogs like GF St Barts, a two-year-old red fawn greyhound who died at Mardi Gras in April 2022 when he was tripped by another dog, fell and suffered a broken skull.
Nearly a decade later, a bill to end greyhound racing is advancing in Congress and will soon be debated by the Senate Agriculture Committee, which now-Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) serves on. This time, I’m hoping that he sides with the dogs. Specifically, I hope he casts a vote for Babydog.
Babydog arrived in the Justice family as a Christmas gift from his children in 2019. She is not only an adorable and important member of the Justice family, she is a political icon. In 2021, Babydog was the mascot for West Virginia’s $23 million “Do It for Babydog” COVID vaccine sweepstakes. In his 2022 State of the State address, Justice ended his speech by hoisting Babydog’s hindquarters into the air and telling Bette Midler and other critics to “kiss her hiney.” Babydog Falls was christened in Babcock State Park in 2023. She got her own chair at the 2024 Republican National Convention. She adorns his Senate campaign merchandise with the phrase “Babydog Demands Justice.” And last October, her sixth birthday was celebrated in the Hart Senate Office Building attended by journalists, staffers and fellow senators.
But politics performed through a pooch and politics demonstrated through policy are two very different things. In 2021, Jim Justice asked West Virginians to get vaccinated for Babydog. Millions of dollars and a national news cycle later, it worked — because people believed him. Now it’s his turn. There are dogs in West Virginia who will never sit in a chair at the RNC, never ride shotgun in the Suburban, never get a waterfall named after them. They are running in circles on tracks that 44 other states have already outlawed, sustained only by state subsidies. The farm bill gives him a chance to change that and to prove that the safety and love that Justice has given Babydog is the kind of protection greyhounds deserve too.
West Virginians are ready to move on. Recent polling found that 65 percent of voters support the Greyhound Protection Act, whereas only 25 percent oppose it. And now we have independent economic research confirming what many of us have known for years. A new Ball State University study found that greyhound racing produces no lasting employment gains, has no effect on GDP, and survives only because millions of dollars are diverted to it every year.
The researchers concluded there is “simply no net fiscal benefit of greyhound racing on West Virginia.” After nearly three decades of advocating for animals in this state, I can think of a lot of better ways to spend $19 million a year than propping up an industry West Virginians no longer want.
The Greyhound Protection Act gives Justice the rarest gift in politics: a redemption opportunity. A redo. I don’t know if Justice would make a different decision today if he had a chance to reconsider his 2017 veto. Either way, his decision gave the industry one final chance to change. In return, they resisted every reform and 4,000 dogs have needlessly suffered.
Justice should support the Greyhound Protection Act. He should do it for the greyhounds. He should do it for West Virginia. Most importantly, he should do it for Babydog.
Theresa Bruner is president of the Federation of Humane Organizations of West Virginia.
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