ARLINGTON — When Christine Dorchak rescued a young black Russian terrier from a neighborhood shelter greater than 30 years in the past, she by no means would have guessed how a lot it might change her life.
In 1992, whereas walking the canine, named Kelsey, close to her Boston home, Dorchak was hit by a rushing MBTA train. But simply previous to the collision, Kelsey pulled Dorchak barely off target — an motion that possible saved each of their lives.
The canine suffered a damaged hip. Dorchak was extra significantly injured. For months, she slipped out and in of a coma. She confronted reminiscence loss and bodily incapacity as nicely.
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But she got here out of it with a brand new lifestyle.
“There’s a reason I’m here,” Dorchak informed Wicked Local in a recent interview. “My accident gave me a restart. I was going to be a foreign correspondent, but that changed once I became determined to do what I could to close the dog tracks.”
For 20 years, Dorchak has been working to close down canine racing tracks and making the exercise unlawful — not solely in Massachusetts however all through the nation and across the globe as nicely. She, alongside along with her husband, Carey Theil, based GREY2K USA Worldwide, a nonprofit that has raised consciousness of the horrors of canine racing, passing greyhound safety legal guidelines and selling the rescue and adoption of greyhounds.
“It’s been an unbelievable odyssey for us,” Dorchak stated.
She not too long ago revealed a guide, “Brooklyn Goes Home,” concerning the rise and fall of American greyhound racing and the canine — Brooklyn — that impressed the motion.
Kelsey: ‘Just as I saved her life, she would save mine’
Dorchak was 26 years old on that fateful morning in 1992. She figured she would get in a fast walk with Kelsey earlier than heading off to her job at a State Street legislation agency.
A yr earlier than, she had gone along with her brother to an animal shelter in Lowell. The shelter was empty aside from Kelsey. It had been “kill day,” and Kesley was on the listing.
“We begged them not to kill her,” Dorchak stated. “We didn’t have the fee for the adoption but told them we would be back in a few days with it.”
The shelter agreed, and Dorchak was in a position to save Kelsey’s life.
“She was my soulmate,” Dorchak stated. “We went through so much together. Just as I saved her life, she would save mine.”
Dorchak was crossing Commonwealth Avenue and South Street — the prepare was above floor at the moment, she stated — when she was struck.
Fortunately, a lady who lived close by heard the accident. She was a retired EMT and ran out to assist.
“She kept me alive,” Dorchak stated. “There was a lot of noise and commotion, and Kelsey took off. She hung out at Saint John’s Seminary and someone walking their dog found her and brought her home to my then-boyfriend.”
While within the hospital, Dorchak briefly got here out of her coma. She requested how Kelsey was, then slipped again into the coma.
“My head injuries were very serious,” she said. “I didn’t remember anything. When I started to come back, I heard people saying, ‘Poor Chrissy, we’ll have to take care of her, she won’t be able to do much.’ And I thought, ‘Oh no. I am going to get out of this bed, and I’m going to do something to help dogs.’ It was very motivational to me that people thought I wasn’t going to be able to take care of myself.”
She needed to stay in a rehabilitation middle earlier than transferring to stay along with her mom in New Jersey.
“She basically brought me back to who I was,” Dorchak stated. “I can’t explain how it feels. When you don’t have an anchor and you don’t know where you’ve been or how you got there, it’s very disorienting and very scary. All I remembered was Kelsey. She and I got well together. That is really what cemented our relationship. She had a broken hip and had hip replacement surgery.”
Dorchak finally went home and returned to work half time. And Kelsey would stay to age 15.
Dorchak turns into impressed to deliver an finish to canine racing
In the late Nineties, Dorchak discovered concerning the horrors of greyhound racing and knew she needed to do one thing to assist the dogs concerned.
“I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I was determined to do it,” she stated. “Dogs were being abused; they were being stacked in small cages near where I lived.”
She joined a bunch that was protesting exterior the previous Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere.
In 2001, she and Theil began GREY2K USA.
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“We were determined to close this track from our one-room basement apartment in Somerville,” Dorchak stated. “We found a high majority of people wanted to end dog racing, especially once they learn the horrors of dog racing and the fact that so many dogs die or are seriously injured and are discarded by this cruel industry.”
Their work attracted the eye of Rev. Tom Grey, founding father of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling and likewise a Methodist minister and Vietnam War veteran.
Grey is Grey2K USA’s longest serving and a founding board member. He turned an expensive buddy to Dorchak and Theil, finally presiding over their marriage.
“I was working in New Bedford to keep a casino out when I was introduced by someone to Christine, who was working to close the dog tracks,” Grey stated. “She asked me about starting a national group to close dog racing. As a minister, I had never said ‘no’ to someone’s hopes or dreams.”
The group was in a position to finish canine racing in Massachusetts after placing a query on the poll. While it initially failed, in 2006, it handed two years later. Wonderland closed in 2010.
Grey inspired Dorchak to maintain going after the poll query’s slender defeat in 2006.
“Next thing I heard, they had put together a board of grassroots people and asked me to be on it,” he stated. “I never doubted what they could achieve.”
Dorchak attended legislation college at night time and has been in a position to assist the group with the legalities of being a nonprofit and taking up the tracks.
Taking the anti-dog racing motion nationwide — and past
Once GREY2K USA ended canine racing in a single state, it might transfer to a different.
“We closed 12 dog tracks in Florida, which was a wonderful accomplishment,” Dorchak stated. “Florida was the heart of dog racing; they did it all year long. We went to the voters and when they saw the facts, they decided it was time to stop dog racing. When other states saw what happened in Florida, they saw the writing on the wall.”
GREY2K USA has closed greater than 50 canine tracks throughout the nation. Two tracks stay, in West Virginia, the place Dorchak stated canine racing is sponsored, “so people don’t want it to end.”
“But we’re working on it,” she said. “We have a federal bill in Congress to make dog racing illegal nationwide. We realized that because dog racing is illegal in so many states, it’s time to look for a national solution.”
GREY2K USA’s attain stretched throughout the globe when it achieved the closing of what Dorchak stated was the “worst” canine monitor on the planet, the Canidrome of Macaua area of China, after Dorchak had learn concerning the monitor in a newspaper.
“Four hundred greyhounds were sent to the track from Australia every year,” she stated. “They killed 30 dogs a month and then would bring over 30 more. No dog ever got out alive.”
A GREY2K USA board member visited the monitor and took images, together with one in every of a white and grey speckled greyhound named Brooklyn.
“I fell in love with Brooklyn,” Dorchak stated.
‘Brooklyn’ turns into the face of marketing campaign to shut Canidrome monitor
Brooklyn turned the face of GREY2K USA’s marketing campaign to shut down the Canidrome monitor and arrange an adoption program for the dogs.
After conferences with Chinese officers, letters, petitions and laws, the monitor closed in 2018.
“They released all their dogs to us,” Dorchak stated. “We airlifted over 500 dogs to rescue homes, and Brooklyn came home to us. Brooklyn’s story of survival was like my own story of survival and beating the odds.”
Dorchak hopes individuals who learn the guide will discover inspiration in her experiences, and people of others concerned.
“We want to let people know you can succeed if you have the determination,” she stated. “You don’t need money or political connections; you can still do it.”
Being a part of organizing a profitable grassroots motion that has really taken on all of the money and political muscle they had been up in opposition to is basically the way you need tales to finish, Grey stated.
“It has always been about the dogs,” he said. “I think it’s good to be part of something that takes on an important issue in an intelligent, compassionate way. It’s a board meeting you don’t want to miss.”
The struggle goes on till the final monitor is closed, Grey continued.
“I am really proud and thankful to have been part of the effort,” he said. “You want to be on the right side of the Road to Jericho. I think we’re on the right side.”
