Last year, it was my good fortune to meet
a woman who has dedicated much of her life to her love of Greyhounds,
her name is Christine Dorchak. Her personal story is inspirational and
endearing to anyone who has ever loved a dog of any kind. We met at the
Taking Action for Animals conference, sponsored by the Humane Society of
the United States. She is the a founder and the President of the
national organization GREY2K USA, a non-profit
organization dedicated to passing stronger greyhound protection laws and
ending the cruelty of dog racing.
Since 2001, the organization has helped
defeat every major attempt to subsidize dog racing with other forms of
gambling nationwide. And just this week, a tremendous victory in New
Hampshire as Governor John Lynch signed into law House Bill 630, a
humane proposal to prohibit greyhound racing in the state. Recently, the
Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission revoked the licenses of all dog
tracks in the state, and in Guam, a bill to make dog racing illegal has
passed unanimously and is on its way to the Governor for signature.
Christine and her organization is a
powerhouse for humane reform for greyhounds and Catholic Stewards of
Creation supports her as an advocate for the greyhounds. Please take
time to view their video presentation, so
beautifully done and sure to inspire your support for this worthy cause!
Michael Voris, STB,
president and founder of St. Michael's Media will present a seminar on BEING
CATHOLIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY...,July 16-18 at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center in
Bloomington, Indiana.
Father Ron brings us into that beautiful
chamber of wisdom where truth in living life to the fullest in God is
explored...and it starts with a very basic supposition.
What did God mean when he gave man
dominion over the earth? Should we exploit animals in racing,
blood sports, or abuse them in our back yards? Where does our
environmental responsibility start towards the earth? Susi addresses
what really is taught to us in Sacred Scripture, Church
teachings and animal advocacy as regards the exploitation and abuse of
animals and creation all over the globe.
Those of us who have dogs know that God
loves dogs, because He placed the "brightest" star into the night sky
and man was perceptive enough to have categorized it because of its
brightness into the constellation of Canis Major (Big Dog) and named it
Sirius, The Dog Star! This week as we share the beauty of greyhounds
with you, we felt it only fitting to recognize that dogs are also
recognized in the heavens above us.
The existence of Sirius was known from
the earliest of astronomical records kept in ancient times. Oddly
enough, Chinese astronomy calls it the "celestial wolf;" the Tohono
O'odham of Arizona note the star as "the dog that follows the mountain
sheep;" the Blackfoot call it "Dog face;" the Inuit call it "moon dog;"
and the Cherokee, the dog-star guardian of either end of the "Path of
Souls."
Sirius is 23 times more luminous than our
own sun and twice its size. It is best viewed in the northern
hemisphere during the winter months. The Dog Star is accompanied by
Sirius B, a white dwarf star that is almost the size of our Earth, a
star that was only recently discovered.
A fascinating article follows on The Dog
Star's companion.
No matter what part of the country you
live in, Spring through Fall brings us out of the supermarkets and into
the Farmers Markets, the U-Pick farms and family produce stands.
Analysis of DNA in 2004 showed that
Greyhounds are closely related to herding dogs of the ancient Celts, in
particular the Vertragus instead of the ancient
saluki and sloughi of Egypt.
RomeReports.comis a private and
independent international news agency based in Rome and specializes in
covering the Pope and the Vatican. Catch the latest today!