Activist shares her passion for greyhound rescue

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Christine Lenfant’s son brought home a greyhound one day and she thought, “What is this?” Lenfant, 59, was not a fan of the dog. She spent some time playing with it throughout the day and ended up falling in love. Ever since then, she has been in love with greyhounds and had a passion for rescuing them.

Lenfant is an activist who has raised and spent money to rescue 19 greyhounds in the last year alone. She has brought 10 greyhounds to her home since she started rescuing them in 2006 and currently has six.

In the U.S., dogs are bred in breeding farms then sold at three months to a racetrack she said. At a grade A racetrack, a dog is purchase for $25,000 to work with a trainer. The dogs learn to be muzzled and are kept in a kennel for about 20 hours out of the day she said. At 2-years-old, they are put on the racetrack. If the dog makes it through not being injured, it’s retired at 5-years-old. If it’s a good racer, it’s used for breeding.

“A greyhound if you take it off the track, doesn’t even know how to go up and down the stairs,” Lenfant said.

The dogs are fed 4D meat which isn’t approved by the FDA she said. Greyhounds at racetracks and farms frequently get parasites because the owners don’t want to spend money to prevent it Lenfant said. There are protestors outside of every racetrack in Florida she said.

Greyhounds that race are given tattoos in their ears she said.  One ear gets a tattoo with the dog’s number when it’s purchased and the other ear gets a tattoo with the dog’s racing number where anyone can look up the number to find out information about how many races it’s been in or it’s health history and birthplace she said.

Dead greyhounds have been found in wells because putting them to sleep costs money that owners don’t want to spend. In Spain, greyhounds are used for hunting. When hunting is over in February, 50,000 Spanish greyhounds are killed. They are put into gas chambers and killed Lenfant said.

Lenfant has made friends worldwide through Facebook because of her passion. People send her paintings, clothing and other types of art with greyhounds on them to show their support and love for her activism.

When she retires, Lenfant is going to travel the world to places where greyhound racing and abuse takes place so she can raise awareness and fight against those practices she said.

“You’ll never meet a kinder, more gentle, more loving, affectionate dog,” Lenfant said. “They’re addicting, they’re like potato chips – you can’t stop at one.”