OUR MISSION
Greyhound Pet Adoptions of Delaware (GPAD) is an all volunteer organization dedicated to finding responsible, loving homes for retired greyhounds and younger dogs that can’t make the grade at the remaining two tracks in the US, resulting in an early retirement. As of July 2023, we’ve also started getting retired racers from Australia. Our goal is to let people know what excellent and loving pets these gentle, retired racers make and to find homes where they will thrive.
We place greyhounds in homes in all three Delaware counties and in MD, PA and NJ within a 45 minute drive from where our volunteers live. There are two reasons for this policy. First, we require an in-person home visit before any applicant is approved to adopt a greyhound, and it’s not realistic to expect our volunteers to drive more than 45 minutes each way. Second, we don’t just place greyhounds in adoptive homes; we provide ongoing support for the dogs and their adopters and we need to be close enough to do that effectively.
GPAD doesn’t have a kennel facility, which limits the number of dogs we can bring to Delaware for adoption. All of our dogs go into foster homes as soon as they arrive from the track. The foster families share details about the dogs’ personalities as they get to know them so we can match each dog with the best approved applicant.
As the number of greyhound tracks in the US has decreased, resulting in fewer adoptable dogs, the popularity of racing greyhounds as pets has increased. Consequently, we sometimes have more approved adopters than adoptable dogs. Even if a dog is listed as “Available,” we may already have an approved adopter in mind for him/her. This is the situation for most greyhound-specific adoption groups throughout the US – it’s great for the dogs but adopters have to be willing to be patient.
Meet our Board Members under About Us!
