The Texas Greyhound Association (TGA) is investigating the care of retired racing greyhounds at a central Texas pet blood bank in response to the release of a PeTA video that purports to show unhealthy greyhounds living in poor conditions at the facility.

The TGA has issued the following statement on the probe:

Although we are well aware of PeTA’s reputation for distorting the facts to raise money and get media coverage, the Texas Greyhound Association (TGA) takes any matters relating to greyhound welfare very seriously. We are currently investigating the allegations made against Pet Blood Bank Inc. A TGA representative visited the facility yesterday to conduct an initial inspection and found no signs of the serious neglect shown in the PeTA video. At the same time, a representative of the sheriff’s office arrived, and after inspecting the facility, indicated that he saw no evidence of seriously problematic conditions. The operator of the Pet Blood Bank advised us that he believed the video may have been taken several years ago when the facility was under previous ownership.

However, we are not yet satisfied. We are working with the sheriff’s department to arrange an independent veterinary inspection of the facility and the dogs housed there to get a more in-depth understanding of the situation. Once we have completed that process and have all the facts, we will determine what further actions may be necessary.

The sheriff of San Saba County, where Cherokee, TX is located, also issued a statement after visiting the blood bank facility, according to a report on the website of KXXV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Central Texas. The statement read as follows:

“It has come to the attention of the Sheriff’s Office of a story on the internet that there is a business in our county that has animals (Greyhounds) that are being abused and neglected. A Deputy went to the reported location and met with the owner who gave him free and unlimited access to the facility. The Deputy could see that all animals had food, water, and shelter and could find no signs of abuse or neglect and the animals appeared to be healthy. Also on scene was an Inspector with the Texas Greyhound Association would also found the story to be baseless. The Deputy then tracked down the Veterinarian who has been on location to check the animals within the recent months and he had never observed anything that would cause concern. The Sheriff and his Deputies take very seriously reports of abuse or neglect of wildlife, domesticated livestock, domesticated pets. We will continue to investigate any reports we are made aware of.”