AS IF JUETENG, masiao, sakla, lotto, cockfighting and other forms of gambling were not yet enough, there is a bill in Congress granting a franchise to set up yet another form of gambling: greyhound racing.

The House railroad has been so efficient that House Bill 5291 (its authors are listed only as Salimbangon,

Soon-Ruiz and Biron; why, are they ashamed of it?) has already been approved for debate and voting by the plenary. In the Senate, there is a committee report recommending approval of the counterpart bill.

The beneficiary of all this efficiency is a corporation named Fox New Millennium Amusement Club Inc. (FNMACI), which will be granted a franchise to operate a greyhound racing track in Mandaue, Cebu.

After Cebu, what is to prevent it from branching out, like jueteng, to other cities and provinces?

Obviously, the Catholic Church, which is against all forms of gambling, is still unaware of this bill because it has not yet spoken against it.

On the other hand, animal welfare groups, like the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), are already up in arms against it because it is not only the gambling aspect of it that is abominable but also the breeding, exploitation and massacre of the greyhounds that would be used for the racing.

In opposing greyhound racing, PAWS said it is cruel to the dogs as it would lead to massive greyhound breeding and killings.

The new gambling form would necessitate breeding thousands of greyhounds, more than can be placed in the racetracks.

Racing aficionados will be motivated to produce “winning” dogs and will end up over-breeding them.

This is inevitable, as can be gleaned from euthanasia statistics in countries that have greyhound racing.

In the United States, about 20,000 surplus greyhounds are destroyed every year because they have been deemed unfit to race and because there are not enough homes for the retired dogs.

Greyhounds do not make good pets because they need plenty of exercise.

To illustrate how many retired dogs we would be dealing with, consider this: A greyhound’s racing career is usually over at 3 to 4 years old, but its life expectancy is about 13 years.

Where will you put all those surplus dogs? Puppies deemed not good enough to race are routinely killed.

We already have an alarming rate of homeless dogs due to unregulated breeding both of purebred and native dogs called “aspins.”

There is no government-funded spay-neuter program to prevent overpopulation of aspins.

Litters are usually given away or sold at street corners. Those who get them are usually enamored of the cuteness of the puppies but lose interest when they become adults and let them wander in the streets as strays.

Breeding of purebred dogs, on the other hand, is not regulated, and anybody who has a bitch can mate it with a male and produce litters and sell them for profit.

There are many irresponsible dog owners who buy purebreeds for status but are not ready for the expense of taking good care of them and throw them out into the streets to save on costs.

We have had to adopt a giant purebred English Mastiff found abandoned in a squatter colony. It was rescued by PAWS which then asked us to adopt it. It has gained much weight and is now happy and healthy in our home.

But soon after that another abandoned dog, a Great Dane, super-thin and weak, was rescued by PAWS.

Previous to that, a Golden Retriever was left by its owner at a veterinary clinic with orders to be euthanized.

The veterinarians took pity on the dog and asked us to adopt it. It is now at our home, happily playing with the English Mastiff.

The same is true with kittens. Irresponsible cat owners routinely throw kittens into streets and vacant lots without any moral compunction at all. In other countries, it is illegal to do that but not here in the Philippines.

What I’m driving at is that we already have an overpopulation of dogs estimated at 9.6 million. One-third of this, or 3.2 million, are strays or homeless.

Villages and cities and municipalities are already grappling with the problem of “getting rid” of unclaimed impounded dogs.

A number of local government units have mercilessly resorted to poisoning, drowning, gassing or selling the dogs to the illegal dog meat trade because they do not know how to humanely dispose of them.

Many have no budgets for the purchase of barbiturates for the proper euthanasia of these unwanted animals.

With less than five non-government-funded animal shelters in the whole Philippines (PAWS included), the solution is not creating more animal shelters but preventing pet overpopulation.

Without greyhound racing, we already have a problem with dog overpopulation. With greyhound racing, we will create a whole new profit industry that will increase the dog overpopulation.

Greyhounds will be bred excessively, leading to more unwanted and unadoptable dogs that will be victims of cruelty and neglect.

The United States had, in 2007, 38 greyhound racetracks in 13 states. Eight states have banned dog racing since 1993. Dramatic declines in attendance and betting have forced 24 tracks to stop live racing. Seven remain open for simulcasting.

The nine remaining racetracks are either up for sale, or in varying states of disrepair.

That is why operators of greyhound racing are moving to the Philippines. But greyhound racing, unlike horse racing, is inherently cruel because it treats dogs as commodities.

The amount of money a dog generates determines whether it lives or dies.