We visit the track on opening night and find the crowd much more diverse than that of any baseball game. Additional Monday races are held Memorial Day through Labor Day.
Admission is free.
According to People for Animal Rights , as many as 20,000 dogs die each year in the greyhound racing industry. I find a place at the fence separating the milling crowd from the track just in time for the beginning of the 67th racing season at Multnomah Greyhound Park. A warm spring day has turned cool and damp in purplish twilight. Roughly 20 yards away, nine dogs squeal, seemingly invisible inside their metal starting boxes. The sound is alarmingly intimate, as if coming from a pet waiting at the back door to come inside.