Page 10 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW SPECIAL ISSUE 7 B

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 1 0

For a sighthound race on a track, here's how to do it. Remember that sighthounds, of
course, do not race for nothing: they need a goal to pursue, otherwise they would
only think of fighting among themselves, and not at all of galloping as fast as possible.
We must therefore release under their noses a prey that excites them, because the
sighthound is a terrible beast of prey that wants to catch at all costs everything that
runs in front of it. In short, after locking six dogs in cages that, on a signal, all open at
the same time, we make an artificial hare run in front of them. The dogs see it behind
their bars, bark madly, become agitated, tremble with lust while this false prey moves
away from their sight and goes around the track. When the electric hare passes
before their eyes again, all the cages open at once, and the dogs run like madmen
after what they take for prey.

A good start.
The electric hare has just passed under the eyes of the locked-up (and already muzzled) dogs: the
cages suddenly open, the greyhounds dash off.

Installed in a small house overlooking the track and containing the machinery, a
mechanic regulates the speed of the electric hare so that it always remains a little
higher than that of the dogs; the latter complete one or two laps of the track, the
distance planned for the race; the judges placed opposite the finishing post note the
dog that passes first in front of this post, then the second, the third etc. Some 50 or
60 meters from there, the hare rushes under a trapdoor, in front of the disappointed
dogs, who are immediately taken back by the men from the kennel.