A two-year-old female greyhound named Pa’s Mismakamess (Missy) came up lame after the sixth race on Friday evening at Tucson Greyhound Park (TGP). She finished the race, but had sustained a commonplace injury to her hock. Kennel owner David Blair observed her being carried into the office of the track vet. Although Missy was not a dog from his kennel, he entered the office to assist.

Seeing that Missy had sustained only a minor injury and was not experiencing excessive pain, Mr. Blair offered to see to it that Missy got to a greyhound adoption group so that she could be treated and adopted out. The track vet, the state vet, the dog owner all insisted that the dog was going to be euthanized in spite of Blair’s offer to save her life.

This is when things turned ugly. Blair, who by his own admission states that he had a few beers, insisted that he was not going to let them kill the dog. Track manager Tom Taylor called the police, who escorted Blair outside and the track summarily killed the dog.

In an effort to cover-up this shameful, irrevocable act, state officials suspended Blair’s license and shut down his kennels in both Tucson and Phoenix. “The track is trying to divert attention away from the dog killing and make this a case about Blair’s creating a disturbance – an offense for which Blair is more than willing to take appropriate punishment,” said Greyhound Protection League (GPL) President Susan Netboy.

What you can do: Show up at the Tucson Greyhound Park on Sept. 4 to show your support for the kennel owner that tried to save Missy's life. The public hearing is at 5:10 p.m. and digital cameras, tape recorders and video cameras are OK. Show up at 4:45 to protest. Spread the word about the ongoing conditions at Tucson Greyhound Park where Rick Favreau "disappeared" with over 140 dogs that have yet to be accounted for.

• 7 to 9 a.m.: Elementary School Crossing On 22nd Street at Treat Avenue
• 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.: On Alvernon Way near Pima Street
• 2 to 4 p.m.: Krieger Elementary School on Glenn Street near Los Altos
• 4:30 to 10 p.m.: On Campbell Avenue near Grant Road

Just how boring is the upcoming city election? Candidates and committees turned in their latest campaign-finance reports (covering fundraising through Aug. 22) back on Thursday with nary a ripple in the media or the blogosphere.

Once again, it appears that John Kromko is a tiny David battling the mighty Growth Lobby machine. Kromko has gathered about $600 for his Tucson Water Users' Bill of Rights, which would repeal the city's garbage fee, ban the delivery of treated effluent to households and prohibit Tucson Water from hooking up new users without voters approval in about a decade. Kromko reports raising about $9,000 and, during a feisty session on Arizona Illustrated, said he had about $600 in the bank for the campaign.

The opposition, No on 200, has raised about $85,000, with big chunks coming from the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association ($30K), the Tucson Association of Realtors ($45K) and Metro Pima Alliance ($10K).

Word on the street is that a recent poll from the opposition shows support for the initiative is somewhere around 65 percent. From what we hear, the most popular element is the idea of blocking new water hookups once Tucson Water is delivering 140,000 acre-feet of water annually, which roughly corresponds with the city’s CAP allotment.

While we’re not privy to exact figures, we hear voters who were polled were less concerned about the proposal to ban toilet-to-tap, while support for dumping the trash fee came in a distant third.

That tells us that people are really sick of growth.

The big question: Can opponents of the initiative knock down the support before November? Answer: Probably, since they'll poke a bazillion holes in Kromko's measure, and he'll have no money to counter it.

No big surprises in the council races. Ward 1 Democrats Regina Romero and Rodney Glassman have raised more than $40K each, while their respective opponents in the Sept. 11 primary, Ken Green and Robert Reus, pretty much have chicken scratch.

Details in next week’s Skinny.