A dog's racing career is usually over at 3.5 to 4 years of age. If able to live out his or her full life as a companion animal, a greyhound may live to be approximately 13 years old. Unfortunately, however, the industry is responsible for greyhounds being killed at various stages of the dogs' lives because they appear to lack racing potential or are injured. Of the percentage of dogs who race, many are adopted into good homes when they are no longer profitable to the industry, but thousands are not. Reports of bludgeoning, abandonment, and starvation have also surfaced.
Veterinarians humanely euthanize some greyhounds.
Racing greyhounds spend the majority of their adult lives in crates or pens or in fenced enclosures. Human companionship is limited. Many enclosures are not climate-controlled, causing the dogs distress during inclement weather. Greyhound training activities have been known to cause as many as 100,000 domestic rabbits and wild jackrabbits to be maimed and killed every year. But greyhounds are sight, not blood, hounds and their inclination to run is instigated by a moving object, not the scent of blood.