Greyhound & Inmate Prison Partnership
Everyone deserves a second chance—Help us give it to them!
Bay Area Greyhound Adoptions, Inc. has been selected as an Adoption Partner with the Second Chance at Life Greyhound & Inmate Prison Partnership (SCAL), a collaboration of the National Greyhound Foundation and correction facilities nationwide. The inmates at selected correctional facilities work with the greyhounds to help them adjust from life in a racing kennel to life in a home. Once the greyhounds have graduated from the program, they will come back to us completely trained and we will place them in adoptive homes.
When you adopt an SCAL greyhound, you will be helping both the greyhounds and the inmates. The SCAL Prison Program gives the greyhounds a place to live from the time they leave the race track until they can be adopted. The inmates provide 24 hour-a-day, 7 day-a-week care for each greyhound. Having a foster greyhound can really transform an inmate's life. The greyhounds give the inmates something positive to do with their time, teach them patience, team work and responsibility, allow inmates to experience unconditional love, establishes vocational training and jobs for inmates, and allows them to give something back to their community. Best of all, the lives of thousands of retired racing greyhounds are saved.
Each greyhound coming into the prison program has already been spayed or neutered, has had their teeth cleaned, has been wormed, and has had all vaccines. The greyhounds are transported from their racing kennels in Florida to the various participating prison facilities. Once there, each greyhound is assigned a handler and an assistant handler. The handlers have volunteered for the program, and have been carefully screened by the prison staff. A certified dog trainer familiar with the special needs of greyhounds teaches the inmates how to care for and train their greyhounds. Depending on the facility, the greyhounds stay in the program for two to three months, at which point their training is completed and they graduate. The greyhounds are returned to us and taken into our adoption program.
We are also currently working on a program where greyhounds with racing injuries can be rehabilitated at a prison facility where the inmate handlers are specially trained to care for these dogs until their injuries are healed and they can go into a regular SCAL training program.
When you adopt an SCAL trained greyhound, you will be adopting The Best of the Best in retired racing greyhounds. These are special dogs for special people. You will gain a new best friend and your greyhound will change your life forever. Your greyhound will be socialized into home living through this unique foster care system and will be proficient in the following commands: heel, sit, stay, down, and come on recall. Depending on the prison facility, your greyhound will also be taught to go up and down stairs. Your SCAL trained greyhound will receive an obedience certificate equivalent to a CGC (Canine Good Citizen) certification when he or she graduates from the program.
Your SCAL greyhound will come with his or her own special leash and collar, SCAL jacket, SCAL travel bag with grooming kit, toothbrush, and toys, a training DVD, and a journal about your greyhound. Because of the costs of transportation, medication, dog food, veterinary care, and the cost to fund the SCAL program, our adoption fees for these specially trained greyhounds are approximately 1/3 higher than the greyhounds we place that do not go through the prison program. Once you meet an SCAL trained greyhound, I am sure you will agree that he or she is well worth the additional investment.
Please check our website under “adoptable greyhounds” for the SCAL greyhounds currently available. For more information, to donate or to view a DVD of the program in action, please click on: www.4greyhounds.org/prison/adoption.html.
Bay Area Greyhound Adoptions, Inc.
PO Box 21641
Tampa, FL 33622
(813) 272-2332