Greyhound Angels - Taking the lead

Interview with Melita Shonis, Founder of Greyhound Angels of WA

When I was 16 I got involved with the sport of racing greyhounds. I started owning, and then training. I've always loved animals.

I suppose I was even a sucker back then because I'd always get all the dogs that no one wanted - the ones that weren't very good. But we did well with them and we had a lot of fun. We did have winners.

I trained until about three years ago. I had my daughter and it was just too much, having a child, doing (greyhound) rescue and racing. I'm the queen of over-commitment. I enjoy the racing but my passion lies with placing the dogs into homes once they're retired.

I've been doing it nearly 13 years. It just started off small and then kept branching out. At my kennels that we used to have, at one stage we had 24 dogs and we'd always have a couple elsewhere. Now we try to keep it manageable. We'd have around 10 greyhounds. Most of them are ex-racers but some didn't quite get there.

Greyhound adoptions were very slow because people don't realise that they're suitable for pets and what nice dogs they are.

(They're) just very quiet, very low maintenance. A lot of people think they've got to have a really big yard and give them a lot of exercise but they're very lazy. A lot of dogs get bored and destructive whereas greyhounds generally just sleep. They're really friendly and really good with kids.

Some of the greyhounds are really hard to part with because you just click with certain dogs. I've been doing it nearly 13 years and I still cry . . . because the dog's leaving me, not because I'm upset that they're going.

We're putting them into a home (where) they're loved and spoilt and just can be a dog basically. They've never been a dog really - they're an athlete.

We keep in contact with (the new owners), and have some get-togethers. It's good to see the dogs again because then they're not my dogs anymore, so it's easier - it's like they've moved on, I've moved on.

For more information see www.greyhoundangels.com

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