PITTSBURGH (AP) – A city group that helps find adoptive homes for former racing greyhounds is looking for homes for nearly a dozen dogs that were forced into retirement when a Connecticut track closed.

Steel City Greyhounds usually places about one greyhound a week in Pittsburgh area homes, but they now have 11 of the 2- to 4-year-old dogs waiting for new homes.

The dogs are from Plainfield Greyhound Park in Plainfield, Conn., which shut down earlier this month. More than 500 dogs that were not moved to other tracks or returned to breeders will have to be adopted.

“Usually, we get them when they are retiring. This is totally unprecedented,” said David Anderson of the Pittsburgh-based adoption service.

“Greyhounds are wonderful pets. When they retire, they really take it seriously,” Anderson said. “You don’t need a lot of space for them. They call them the 45-mile-an-hour couch potato.”

Officials at the Plainfield Greyhound Park have been inundated with requests to adopt dogs since it ended live racing earlier this month.

The shutdown leaves 1,000 dogs needing new venues, transportation back to their owners or new homes.

AP-ES-05-21-05 0105EDT