Kansas City, Mo. ? Janie McBride started her Friday by opening an e-mail that said 35 greyhounds would be killed today at The Woodlands.

“I don’t know where these people are getting this information,” said a clearly miffed McBride, who runs Pups Without Partners, the greyhound adoption program at the track.

“I can tell you, anytime there is a track closing, there is mass hysteria.”

The track announced this week that it would cease operations after the last races on Aug. 23. In addition to the 250 humans out of work, hundreds of greyhounds will be jobless – and homeless.

Greyhound adoption groups across the country are now on high alert, waiting for the chain reaction about to go off.

“If anyone at the racetrack wants you to believe it’s simple, it’s not,” said Marilyn Varnberg with Greyhound Adoptions of Florida. “If something happens at The Woodlands, there is a domino effect that can possibly touch every adoption group in this country.”

The track’s general manager, Jayme LaRocca, said some of the dogs would be transferred to other tracks, some would be returned to their owners and others would be adopted out.

LaRocca said that after the track closes, The Woodlands will take care of the dogs, which it does not own, at the track’s expense.

But for how long?

“As long as it takes until we get them suitably placed,” LaRocca said.

That came as good news to adoption groups. Based on experiences with other track closures – as many as 11 in the last three years – the groups say finding new homes for the dogs could be complicated.

For one thing, the dogs The Woodlands will send to other tracks will displace other dogs. And adoption groups already have more dogs than either kennel space or adoptive homes.

As president of the Greyhound Protection League, Susan Netboy has an unabashed love-hate relationship – as do many adoption groups – with dog tracks.

When The Woodlands’ news broke, Netboy spared little time issuing a press release from her home in northern California. Her press release raises the specter of dogs being shuttled out the back door of The Woodlands, never to be accounted for again.

Kennel owners say it’s a false scenario because any time a dog leaves the track, papers must be filed with the state on its whereabouts. Track officials also are working closely with the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission to place the dogs.

No one knows yet how many dogs will wind up at other tracks. LaRocca said the dogs live at the track in 14 kennels, each with a capacity of 66 dogs. He guessed there could be as many as 900 greyhounds at the track.

“I won’t sit here and lie and say no dogs will be put down,” McBride said. “That’s probably not the truth. But we will do everything we can to find them homes.”