Dayside, Chris Procopis tracks financial due diligence, then he is about the business of helping to get greyhounds off the track and into homes.
A second-generation Greek-American, Procopis grew up in his family”™s diner business in Bedford Hills.
Procopis headed to the nation”™s capital to study at American University, earning a degree in political science focusing on business administration.
“When I got out I started working with a friend of mine who did corporate investigative work,” said Procopis. “That”™s how I got my interest in corporate due diligence, primarily for financial firms.”
Starting in 2000, Procopis spent four years as a manager at Deloitte L.L.P. in New York where he coordinated and conducted due diligence investigations for IPOs.
He also worked as a research analyst and investigator for Investigative Group International in New York City where he managed the research department overseeing case work, staffing and training.
With Michael C. Levien, Procopis co-founded LexPro Research in Stamford, Conn., in 2006, continuing to work in corporate due diligence.
Procopis settled in Cross River. There, he and his wife Christine Johnson got their first rescued greyhound.
“My wife had always had dogs,” said Procopis. “We got our first greyhound in 2000 and then we got another one. We learned about what was going on in the greyhound world.”
Procopis said that there were 60,000 greyhounds being breed each year, half of which were being killed.
“They had to be adopted or put down because they”™d come off the track and the owners didn”™t want to continue to pay for their upkeep,” said Procopis. “A family friend of ours helped to start the nonprofit group, making a fairly sizable donation. There were and are many adoption groups across the country, but not enough. The goal of the adoption is to get to the point where no greyhounds are put down.”
Procopis said there are many misconceptions that because greyhounds are fast they need a lot of room and are also therefore wild.
“That”™s not true; their more catlike than anything,” said Procopis.
The group has placed nearly 1,000 greyhounds in the past eight years.
“We do home visits, meet with the people, see if they”™re right for a greyhound,” said Procopis. “Greyhounds have never been pets; it”™s not like getting a lab or golden retriever. Those dogs are a lot more used to being in a home. Greyhounds have never seen stairs, they don”™t know about sliding glass doors.”
The dogs, known for their 40 mph speeds, are fostered by volunteers until a suitable home is found.
“We have about 25 to 30 hardcore volunteers and about 30 additional volunteers,” said Procopis.
Procopis said the geographic focus of the placements is Westchester, Putnam, Duchess, Rockland, Orange and Ulster counties in New York and, in Connecticut, Fairfield County and Litchfield County.
“I bring my greyhound with me to work,” said Procopis. “We”™re so passionate about our dogs here; my partner brings his two labs, as well. We picked out the business building that we”™re in because it was animal friendly, which is kind of rare.”
Procopis and Johnson”™s three rescue greyhounds are Crystal, Tiger and Abby. Two earlier rescues ”“ Parris and Pepper ”“ have gone to that big dog run in the sky
Procopis said the money that covers the shots and everything else included in saving each dog is typically about $300.
“Our donation amount is around $250, so we”™re basically losing $50 per dog, but with these tough financial times we don”™t feel its right to raise the price of donation,” said Procopis. “We get a lot of dogs that have broken legs and we have deals with the track rather than them being shot they send them to us. They don”™t want to spend the thousands of dollars to set a dogs leg. We get them, have doctors fix them, and then find homes for them. It”™s all donation-based.”
According to Procopis, early in the organization”™s career many of the greyhounds were from the Shoreline Star Track in Bridgeport.
“Now we get them from tracks in Rhode Island and Florida,” said Procopis. “We were getting them instead of them being sent to Florida where many of them are killed.”
Recently, a major track in Guam closed and Procopis”™ group has been able to airlift four dogs at-a-time for adoption purposes.
“They were letting the dogs go into the wild and letting the dogs die from malnutrition,” said Procopis. “We”™ve been airlifting them and housing them. We”™ve gotten 20 dogs at this point; they go from Guam to Hawaii to JFK. It”™s a very tough trip.”
Greyhound Rescue & Rehabilitation is a registered not-for-profit. The Web site is greyhoundrescuerehab.org/index.html.
