I’ve had, in my admittedly short life, four fabulous dogs. They’ve been big dogs and they’ve been lanky, furry and rowdy. I’ve hung out with my friend’s dogs. Small, loud and sometimes outright mean. I’ve loved them all, but I just can’t find it in myself to like one specific dog; greyhounds. 

There have been people who genuinely like a dog that looks like several sticks with a faux fur coat shrink wrapped over them in some abomination of a quadruped. People say they’re good hunters, they’re fun to watch run around and they are appealing as family dogs because of how loyal they are. They‘re also very tall and wild looking dogs, and people say that’s cute. Those people are also the ones that jog in the morning, so I like to take their words with a grain of salt.

I, on the other hand, find them rather ugly. Greyhounds are disproportionate, long limbed, skinny dogs and they don’t look right to me. What kind of dog needs their eyes so forward on their head and so far out of their skull. They truly stand out amongst the crowds of cute dogs as the horses of dog breeds. 

Racing greyhounds are often denied veterinary attention, stuck in too small cages and often experience horrible injuries like broken necks, cardiac arrest or spinal damage. While being bred for running does make sense in the way they’re built, dog racing in it of itself is a crude way to make what could have been a sweet family dog into a starved speed machine. It doesn’t excuse the fact that I don’t like them, but it justifies a few of their faults.

Those that agree with me would realize that some dogs are bred for functionality, and of those dogs tend to be ugly because their sole purpose is to run or swim or hunt. Sometimes you don’t have to be the fastest dog. Sometimes you can just let dogs be cute without ruining it by making them greyhounds. That being said, just because I don’t like the dog doesn’t mean it’s not deserving of love from some other family. Every dog deserves a home, and every home deserves a dog. Even if it’s a greyhound.