Paul Pullen has been a practicing veterinarian since 1975. He has served as the track veterinarian at Tucson Greyhound Park for the last two years.

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An initiative to regulate greyhound racing in South Tucson is based on misinformation and emotion rather than fact. No one should be deceived; this measure is not really about animal welfare. It's actually an effort by animal-rights activists to regulate a business out of existence, no matter what harm is done — even if it's harm to the greyhounds themselves.

The proposed initiative addresses three areas of greyhound care: exercise, diet and the use of testosterone to prevent female greyhounds from going into heat.

Ballot proponents claim that greyhounds need more exercise and outdoor time. This is simply not the case. Greyhounds do not have a high need for constant exercise; they are widely recognized as "couch potatoes" who are content to lay quietly for hours in their crates, which by state law are large enough for them to sit, stand, turn around and lie down comfortably.

Greyhounds are somewhat unique among dog breeds because they have little body fat or protective hair. This makes them exceptionally vulnerable to extremes of heat or cold. It explains why they prefer short periods of outdoor exercise spread out over the course of the day, as is the current practice at all tracks. The kennels are climate-controlled and alarmed for temperature variances.

However, under the proposed rules, greyhounds would be forced to spend at least six hours a day outdoors, even in the most extreme weather. This kind of prolonged exposure to temperature extremes could be harmful or even fatal to the dogs.

The proposed rule regarding meat fed to greyhounds is another bogus idea. Animals are not people, and their digestive systems are different from ours. In nature, animals eat other animals all the time without benefit of cooking.

If you've ever taken your family dog for a walk and watched in dismay as he gobbled up a dead bird, you understand this fact. Dogs can digest bacteria that people can't. Greyhounds have no difficulty digesting 4D meat; if they did, no rational person would feed it to them, since it would interfere with the greyhound's ability to perform at the track.

Prohibiting the administration of steroids to prevent heat cycles also is misguided. There is no evidence that female greyhounds have suffered any serious long-term harm from this practice. In fact, preventing estrus improves the comfort of the greyhounds and reduces the likelihood of aggressive behavior in the kennels.

Many female greyhounds are returned to the farm for breeding purposes when they retire. This would not be possible if they had suffered damage from the short-term use of steroids.

There's another aspect of this proposal to consider. If activists succeed in regulating greyhound tracks out of existence, what other businesses will be next? Whose jobs will be the next target? Businesses could begin fleeing from South Tucson to escape half-baked regulations driven by one fringe group or another.

Animal rights activists continually misrepresent the facts in order to put an end to animal enterprises.

This initiative is not really about animal welfare at all; it's about deliberately regulating a local business out of existence because a handful of people oppose it. It isn't greyhounds these people are protecting; it's their own misguided political agenda.