Animal Welfare Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Bird Friendly Windows, Lighting Can Make Migration Safer, Say Conservationists

As the sun set Thursday, an estimated 218 million birds across the continental United States began a journey southward.

Many people are familiar with migration, a process by which birds and other animal species ward off the winter by traveling toward food and warmth. But fewer people know that many birds never reach their destination.

“We’ve lost a lot of birds in our lifetimes,” said Joelle Gehring, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who studies bird migration. Gehring visited her agency’s National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown for a talk on bird conservation Thursday evening.

In 2019, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology found that the U.S. and Canada bird population has declined by roughly 3 billion since 1970, a loss of about 30 percent. In large part, Gehring said, the culprit is human development.

Many bird species are drawn to light, which means bright urban areas can steer them off their migratory course. Plus, more homes and buildings built across the country bring more sites for deadly collisions — especially from windows and glass, which birds generally do not recognize as a barrier.

The upper level of this building at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown has window coverings that appear opaque from the outside but translucent from the inside.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Covering windows and glass

Gehring said a common misconception is that tall buildings with lots of glass, like skyscrapers, cause most bird crashes. In fact, Gehring said more than 99 percent of collisions occur at low-rise buildings, like the numerous residential structures in any given town or city.

“When I first started thinking about this issue, I thought, ‘This is a tall building issue, right? This is (about) the skyscrapers in New York City. This doesn’t really apply to me as a homeowner,’” she said. “But it does. It applies to all of us.”

For starters, Gehring said residents can partially cover windows around their home to make them safer for birds but still usable. This could mean hanging paracord curtains over window frames, which tells birds not to dart straight into them.

If paracord is not aesthetically to taste for some residents, Gehring said there are also stickers that can be applied to windows that appear opaque from the outside but translucent from the inside.

This lets people indoors see through them, and also tells birds a barrier lies ahead — not the garden they see in the window’s reflection.

Or, instead of covering a window entirely, residents can place small, opaque stickers on their windows on a two-inch grid pattern. These stickers tell birds to slow down because they might be unable to fit if they fly straight ahead.

Opaque stickers placed on a window in a two-inch grid pattern tell birds a barrier they might not fit through lies ahead.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

The training center uses short, low-intensity and downward-facing outdoor lighting fixtures to reduce light pollution.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

For some households, modifying window structures may not be necessary at all. Screens placed on the outside of windows already pose a visual barrier that prevents collision.

Regardless of each resident’s approach, Gehring said taking any step toward covering a window, so long as it is done from its outer side, can make a difference in protecting birds. “Treating that glass to reduce bird collisions is incredibly important,” she said.

Reducing light pollution

As for lighting, Gehring said using lower-intensity, yellow-toned bulbs is less disruptive to migration, and causes less light pollution overall. So is using lighting structures that point toward the ground, not into the sky.

Plus, Gehring said residents and communities can consider simply using outdoor lighting less often, which can reduce both energy costs and light pollution.

During Thursday’s event, Randy Robinson, an outreach coordinator who works at the training center in Shepherdstown, showed attendees how these techniques are being used at the local facility.

By the spring, staff at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown hope to treat all windows on site to ensure bird do not fly into them.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

A growing number of windows now bear stickers or other coverings, and knee-high lights line the center’s many pathways. These low-to-the-ground structures light areas of interest for people walking by without brightening the area too much.

“It’s solar lighting, but it’s aimed at the ground so we don’t have light escaping and causing light pollution,” he said.

Robinson said the training center is currently working to cover all windows across its buildings. The facility began first with its higher-risk areas, like its largest windows, but hopes to use bird-safe infrastructure across the campus to serve as an example to the local community.

“Hopefully by spring, all of these windows are going to be done over the entire surface,” he said. “You’ve got to have it covering everything.”

For more information on how to make buildings and lighting safer for migratory birds, visit the United States Fish and Wildlife Service website.

Federal Horse Racing Anti-Doping Regulations Take Effect, Including In W.Va.

West Virginia and Louisiana filed an injunction against the agency in July, keeping the act from being fully implemented while federal proceedings continued.

The federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act’s anti-doping program went into effect Monday.

The act creates safety programs and regulates medication for racehorses statewide. It was previously ruled unconstitutional by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last November. The court ruled the act gave too much power to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and not enough to the Federal Trade Commission.

In response, Congress granted the FTC the authority to oversee the agency. It has now reached agreements with all state commissions and tracks that feature live racing.

West Virginia and Louisiana filed an injunction against the agency in July, keeping the act from being fully implemented while federal proceedings continued. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey had previously made statements against the agency’s legality.

A stay from the appeals court halted the injunction, though a revised ruling still blocked certain rules involving access to track records and facilities, calculations of fees paid to the agency by the states and definitions on which horses were covered by regulations.

Days after the original suspension of the rules took effect, a horse collapsed during a race at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort in New Cumberland and had to be euthanized.

West Virginia has two horse racing venues: the Mountaineer Racetrack & Resort and the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.

Federal Court Rules In Favor Of States In Horse Racing Rules Case

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of West Virginia, Louisiana and Texas in a case regarding the implementation of federal racetrack safety rules for horse racing.

Both the nonprofit Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), and the federal act that created it, were declared unconstitutional by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Congress originally passed HISA in 2020.

The authority would have overseen safety programs and made decisions regulating doping and medication in horse racing. In the past, these decisions were made at the state level.

The court ruled that the act gave too much power to the agency and not enough to the Federal Trade Commission, which had the power to approve or reject HISA regulations but not to modify them.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has previously made statements against the legality of HISA, while animal rights organizations like Animal Wellness Action disagree, calling the act the “sport’s last chance at survival.”

An injunction was previously placed on the agency by the U.S. District Court’s Western District of Louisiana last July, but was blocked by the appellate court. A racehorse collapsed and was euthanized during a race at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack, and Resort in New Cumberland shortly after the initial injunction.

West Virginia has two racetracks in the state, also including Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.

Part Four: Greyhound Adoption Popular, But Appeal Could Wane With Industry

When dogs are done racing, it's time for them to enjoy a well-earned retirement. Demand to adopt racing greyhounds in particular is high.

When dogs are done racing, it’s time for them to enjoy a well-earned retirement. Demand to adopt racing greyhounds in particular is high.

Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, was doing his due diligence when he went to inspect the kennels at the Wheeling Island Adoption Center. He wanted to make sure that the industry in his district was safe and humane. What he didn’t want, was what he got: another dog.

“The only downside to visiting the kennel that day is that my wife and I went from two to three dogs,” Weld said. “We adopted a dog that we met that day.”

Weld calls it a downside, but like many people he was taken by what the American Kennel Club calls the greyhound’s nobility and gentleness. And although greyhounds can reach speeds of more than 40 miles per hour, it’s actually not a very active breed.

“They’re called 45 mile an hour couch potatoes,” Weld said. “They like to run out in the morning, she’ll run a little bit at night. But other than that, they just like to lounge.”

That relaxed temperament is part of the racing greyhound’s appeal.

Greyhound breeder Steve Sarras said most if not all of his dogs get adopted. Of the 75 dogs on Sarras’ farm in Wellsburg, even the best dogs only race until they’re around five or six years old. As much as Sarras and his employees love their dogs, at the end of the day it is still a business and space needs to be made for new dogs.

“The best thing is we breed them, we know that someone wants them, that’s the best thing about it,” Sarras said. “The industry has gotten like, anywhere from a 95 to a 97 percent adoption rate. You look at any other canine breed and nowhere near that.”

Greyhound breeder Steve Sarras smiles down at one of his newest puppies.

Across the country, people are more than willing to adopt racing greyhounds. Sydney Bader is the adoption coordinator for Wheeling Island Greyhound Adoption Center. Her organization works directly with trainers, the track and groups all around the U.S. and Canada to help disperse all of the dogs that have retired to loving homes.

“The demand is ridiculous,” Bader said. “We’re not Walmart, we can’t create dogs just because the demand is so high.”

As the industry declines, the supply of dogs is dwindling with it. Come next year, West Virginia will be home to the last two dog tracks in the country.

“If you want one or two more greyhounds before this is all over, put in your apps now, start looking now, because this conversation is not going to be the same in three, five, six years,” Bader said. “I don’t know what it looks like.”

Bader said that the Wheeling Island Adoption Center and its partner programs in other states have become more discerning.

“A lot of time in the past several years has been spent devoted to learning about our dogs, and also learning about our adopters and learning about our groups that we work with,” she said.

The demand for these dogs as pets is definitely not going anywhere. Like Weld, Bader said that the greyhound’s appeal is in their temperament.

Advocates, adopters, trainers and breeders all agree on one thing: greyhounds that have gone through the racing program are just different. The dogs’ socialization – both with humans and other dogs – certainly plays a part.

Generally, a non-racing dog being put up for adoption is separated from its littermates nine to 12 weeks after being born. But racing breeders like Sarras often keep littermates together for more than a year before sending them to training.

Racing greyhounds take the first turn at the Wheeling Island track.

Whatever makes greyhounds so appealing, it’s likely to go away with the racing industry.

“A greyhound that hasn’t raced versus a greyhound who went through the program? Absolutely, they’re different,” Bader said. “They’re honestly the easiest dog to own. I always tell people, it’s like owning a 75 pound cat.”

As a greyhound owner herself, she admits there can be a bit of a learning curve as the dogs acclimate to domestic life.

“I would always have people come up and be like, greyhounds are stupid,” she said. “They’re not, they just never had to problem solve. And it’s not that they can’t do it. That’s not how they’re born, bred and raised to operate.”

That’s where people like Gaye Anne Weaver, executive director of the Greyhound Inmate Experience, come in.

“People who are interested in adoption of greyhounds, the majority of them want a pet,” Weaver said. “The tracks and the kennels are not a pet environment.”

Weaver receives about 15 of the 20 retired racing greyhounds in her program from West Virginia every 10 weeks. She places the dogs at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan, one dog with two inmates, to be trained.

Greyhounds are well-socialized, but in a very specific way, and they need some help acclimating to home life.

“Once they come off the track, it’s our purpose to help them transition into pet life, which is getting hugs and all those other things and treats and toys,” Weaver said.

Young greyhounds look through the fencing of their enclosure on the Sarras farm.

Weaver said the program ended up at the prison because they needed a place where they could foster and train a lot of greyhounds all at once. But what started out as a dog-focused program, has now become a person-focused program. The inmates help the dogs prepare for their new homes, and in turn the dogs help the inmates prepare for success after their sentences.

“There were a lot of pessimists out there that said, you know, you’re never gonna get 40 guys to make a commitment and be responsible, have empathy, communicate with one another, trust one another. It’s just never going to happen,” Weaver said. “And I think that over the years, we’ve probably proved all the skeptics wrong.”

For that reason, Weaver and her team are less concerned than others about the decline of the racing greyhound in America. But as a greyhound lover of more than 20 years, she said she has seen a lot of improvements in the industry.

At this juncture, with West Virginia set to become the last place where greyhounds are raced in the United States, perhaps those improvements were too little too late. But it seems certain that if greyhound racing ends here, the breed as is known and loved by so many will go with it.

Part Two: Humane Treatment Major Question For Greyhound Racing Industry

Opponents of dog racing accuse the industry of abusive treatment, but those working within don't see it that way.

Just off the first turn of the dog track at the Wheeling Island Casino stands a concrete-block building, the racetrack’s paddock. Inside, greyhounds are prepared for the day’s races.

Dogs are weighed, fitted with racing bibs and checked by the state veterinarian on-site. Before and after their race, the dogs are held in crates, one stacked on top of the other.

Long spans of crating is just one of many issues opponents of dog racing point to as abusive treatment.

The holding crates inside the paddock at Wheeling Island Casino, where dogs are kept before and after races.

Carey Thiel is the president of Grey2KUSA, a non-profit dedicated to ending greyhound racing in the U.S. In the racing system, Thiel said, dogs are disposable.

“Just last year, 627 greyhound injuries were reported to the state racing commission in West Virginia, including 189 dogs that suffered broken bones and 10 dogs that died,” Thiel said.

In an industry that calls its dogs “athletes,” Thiel said the death rate is unacceptable.

“If 10 high school football athletes died in West Virginia last year, I think that would be the number one story being discussed in the state,” Thiel said.

Thiel has advocated for laws banning greyhound racing in states like Florida and Massachusetts. For him and similar-minded activists, there is no point in prolonging a doomed industry.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that greyhound racing is going to end in West Virginia, as it has ended elsewhere,” Thiel said. “I think the question is, how long is it going to take? How many millions in state funds are going to be wasted? And how many dogs are going to suffer in the meantime?”

Dr. Lori Bohenko, the state veterinarian at Wheeling Island, takes issue with that position.

“It’s my data,” Bohenko said. “I’ve been here 18, 19 years. And they just twist it to their benefit.”

Dr. Lori Bohenko stands in her office at the Wheeling Island Casino racetrack. As the state veterinarian on-site, Dr. Bohenko is responsible for treating and reporting all dog injuries at the track.

In her role as the racetrack’s state veterinarian, Bohenko reports every injury.

“Whether it’s a toenail that was torn off or a broken leg,” Bohenko said. “Are there catastrophic things that happen? Absolutely. But they’re minimal. They’re not as frequent as they like to portray.”

Bohenko concedes that in the past, the racing industry did treat dogs as disposable, but insists that attitudes have changed. She points towards the Four Legs 4 Hounds program she founded with funds from greyhound breeders.

It sends dogs with broken legs to the veterinary hospital at Ohio State University in Columbus. In the past, these dogs would have been euthanized, but Bohenko estimates that since its creation, the Four Legs program has reduced the number of euthanized dogs by 80 or 90 percent.

“I would say there might be anywhere from three to six dogs a year that might be euthanized here,” Bohenko said. “I’m sure veterinary practices, small animal practices euthanize a lot more dogs than this racetrack does in a year.”

For people involved in and employed by the greyhound racing industry in West Virginia, accusations of cruelty are puzzling.

“For these dogs to have an opportunity to get on a racetrack and do what they instinctively do, I just think is a joy for them,” Bohenko said. “You see these dogs and they love going out and running. I think because it is a regulated sport, the surface is kept as safe as you can.”

A view across the dog runs at the Sarras farm in Wellsburg shows some of the 75 dogs at the farm.

Steve Sarras is the president of the West Virginia Kennel Owners Association. He is a second generation greyhound breeder, and currently has about 75 dogs on his farm in Wellsburg, north of Wheeling.

“These dogs are brought up, they expect you to dote on them, they expect that love and affection,” Sarras said. “They come running up to you with their tails wagging. Which is, you know, if you stop and think if a dog was abused, they’re not going to do that, they’re going to cower away.”

When visitors first arrive on the Sarras property, they look down onto the dogs’ living quarters, some two dozen concrete block shelters attached to fenced-in runs. The blocks are spartan, but the runs are maintained and dogs can run whenever they like.

Greyhound breeder Steve Sarras interacts with some of his dogs on his farm in Wellsburg.

Sarras says his dogs are well taken care of because otherwise, they don’t win races.

“You’re giving them the best food, the best vitamins, best vaccination protocols, the best worming protocols,” Sarras said. “In order for you to be competitive, and in order for you to win, and in order for you to get reimbursed, you have to do all of that stuff.”

Sarras believes that activists, while well-intentioned, are ultimately misinformed about what actually goes on at the track and on farms like his.

He encourages concerned citizens to go to a racetrack or a breeder’s farm, see things for themselves, and make up their own mind. Seeing the industry up close seems to have been enough for the state’s lawmakers.

Listen to West Virginia Morning on Tuesday next week for part three of “Greyhound Racing In W.Va. – Last Of A Dying Breed.” In our next story, statehouse reporter Randy Yohe explores the relationship between the legislature and the dog track.

National Animal Welfare Group Alleges Mistreatment In Berkeley, Purchases County Land

A Bethesda, Maryland-based advocacy organization that works to protect animals from abuse filed a petition last week with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals alleging that Berkeley County Animal Control is not providing proper veterinary care for several of its animals.

The day before the filing, the advocacy group purchased a large property in the county for more than $300,000.

Alley Cat Allies said they conducted an in-depth investigation for more than a year that allegedly revealed that Berkeley County Animal Control “intentionally, knowingly and recklessly withheld necessary medical treatment for animals in its shelter, causing extreme suffering and in some cases death.”

The filing details cases of malnourishment, untreated inflammation, swollen eyes and tongues, a ruptured hernia, and a broken leg. Two animals were allegedly in such poor condition, they had to be euthanized.

Alley Cat Allies, on Nov. 23, submitted the petition asking the state’s high court to intervene and order Berkeley County Animal Control to “act on its legal duty” and provide veterinary care for the animals in its shelter.

The Berkeley County Sheriff’s office, which houses the animal control unit, has not yet released a formal statement on the matter. But according to a spokesperson with the sheriff’s office, there will be a press conference sometime next week to address the allegations.

The day prior to the filing, on Nov. 22, Alley Cat Allies purchased more than 17 acres of land in Berkeley County for $311,000, according to a deed filed with the county clerk’s office.

Alley Cat Allies told West Virginia Public Broadcasting they purchased the property “to further our work and advance our mission in the area.” They did not detail further on the future of the property.

Becky Robinson, president and founder of Alley Cat Allies, said they have done work in Berkeley County for decades.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a Washington, D.C.-based magazine that covers philanthropic and nonprofit organizations around the world, wrote an in-depth report in 2018 alleging that “Robinson runs the organization with few checks on her power.” The Chronicle also noted in its story that the nonprofit is not properly scrutinized for real estate purchases and for the salaries of its employees.

The organization, according to its 2020 IRS 990 report, brought in about $10.7 million that year. Robinson’s compensation was more than $247,000.

In contrast to the report from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Alley Cat Allies holds a platinum rating on GuideStar, which claims to have “the most complete, up-to-date nonprofit data available” on its website. A platinum rating from the organization signifies a high ranking in transparency for tax filings, leadership and mission, among others.

Alley Cat Allies was founded more than 30 years ago and has 650,000 supporters worldwide, according to its website.

Berkeley County Animal Control has favorable ratings on its Facebook page and posts photos and activities often. At the time of this story, the shelter received 4.3 out of 5 stars based on 127 Facebook reviews. However, several recent reviews, dating back to 2019, are negative.