I've been meaning to write about Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan for a while now. It's refreshing to see a big news outlet that actually cares even a little bit about the truth, even if it is largely some dude (or recently, dudes plural) with a camera. Callaghan frequently shows up at events like political protests and makes a genuine effort to understand and present the motives and underlying causes behind them, but for his latest outing he's turned his sights somewhere a bit unusual: Wheeling Island, America's last greyhound racing track.
Dog racing has been made illegal in nearly every US state out of concerns for both animal health and the gambling industry that's sprung up around it – but somehow, West Virginia has held on.
As usual, Callaghan's approach is comprehensive and thought-provoking, weighing the economic benefits the track brings to the county against the gambling addictions it enables and the well-documented animal abuse that the dogs face. Spoiler alert: they aren't exactly equal.
