Fuel Midwest Greyhound Adoption's Rebirth

It has been an interesting and challenging time for Midwest Greyhound Adoption since 2018. Following the vote in Florida to ban greyhound racing in October 2018, we at MGA scrambled to take in as many dogs as possible as the tracks closed. When the US closed down due to Covid in March of 2020, hundreds of dogs were being cared for in kennels in FL by compassionate kennel owners trying to maintain them during the shutdown waiting for restrictions to be lifted so dogs could be moved to adoption agencies.. We fundraised to help feed and house them during that difficult time. Once restrictions were lifted, we helped facilitate transport of greyhounds up to our area; both for our adoption group and others close by.

We continued to receive dogs from the Dubuque track once the Florida tracks had closed. The last race in Dubuque was in May of 2022. Our last adoption was in November of 2022.

At that point, the board made the decision to start winding down operations due to fact that there were diminishing number of tracks in the country that we could receive dogs from. The board felt that it was important to keep the kennel open for as long as possible to support our MGA families who still had dogs. The kennel has served as a boarding facility as well as receiving greyhounds back from families who could no longer care from them or whose living situations had changed. Our fundraising infrastructure was dismantled after November 2022 when we placed our last US retired racer in a forever home. We did not feel it was appropriate to ask for donations when we were not actively adopting out greyhounds. Instead, we chose to continue providing support for our MGA families until our funds were depleted. We would then shut down operations for good.

But then in April of this year an exciting new opportunity dropped into our laps. We were approached by Greyhound Racing New Zealand, Great Mates Rehoming Programme, Nightrave Greyhounds, and Greyhound Pets of America to gauge our interest in receiving dogs from New Zealand. Since we had so many MGA families who had had dogs pass on interested in adopting more greyhounds, we jumped at the chance to begin our adoption program again.

SO…Now it is time to reenergize and reinvigorate. We need to ramp up fundraising now that we are actively adopting dogs again.. And we are asking for your help.

With the most thrilling arrival of our 1st Kiwis Bernie, Janice and Jay beginning April 27, 2024, comes increased expense. We now have immediate and ongoing need for kennel supplies to maintain happy healthy greyhounds in a clean, safe environment. We have published a plea for supply donations on Facebook, but our greatest need at this point are Cash Donations. We have established this Go Fund Me campaign to achieve our goal of $10,000.00

MGA is entirely run by volunteers, with 100% of donations going directly to our mission to help retired greyhounds on their journey home. We are a 50l(c)3, not-for-profit organization and have been in existence since 1992.