Death of an Industry !

Horse racing is said to be the sport of Kings.  In New South Wales, racing Greyhounds was the sport of Battlers !   A familiar sight in the half-light before dawn was a man or woman leading several tethered Greyhounds to achieve the exercise necessary for racing success.   Often a promising dog got better food than its owner.   There was always the hope that all this work and effort would produce a champion - and with that the fame and money that success brings with it !

Sadly, this was rarely the hoped for outcome.   There are 3,800 registered breeders of Greyhounds in New South Wales and each year about 17,500 pups are born - and about half of these never race.  This is a big industry.  It employs two thousand full time employees with another eight thousand casuals and each year $ 1.1 billion in bets is placed on Greyhound races, and this returns $ 335 million in taxes to the government.

Unfortunately, it is also an industry with a dark side, as a recent enquiry has shown.  This was sparked by a sensational expose conducted by a television news crew and it shocked the New South Wales government in banning this sport.   From July 1 next year, Greyhound racing will be illegal in this state.

Just as in horse racing, the sport is a contest to award the fastest .  To achieve that, the dogs are trained to chase a " lure " and this has been refined to unacceptable levels of cruelty.  Some trainers contend that what is called " blooding " is necessary to maximise the dogs performance and so a live animal - a rabbit, cat or piglet - is attached to the lure and the dog is permitted to tear it to pieces. Such " blooding " is carried out in secret at bush training camps.

There is also criticism levelled at injuries suffered during racing and about 136 incidents when dogs have been put down have been recorded each year.  It is also thought that thousands of unsuccessful dogs are euthenised because they are " too slow " for racing success.   There have also been doping scandals and persistent rumours of underworld interest in the Greyhound racing industry.

Banning the sport seems an inconsistent knee jerk approach.  Not all the horses sold at the annual yearling sales are successful at the race track.  Many such slow horses end up as horse meat for the pet food industry and race falls that require injured animals to be put down are a part of racing.
The government claims that this ban was " necessary " from a " humane " approach and that improving the industry by " regulation " was unlikely to lead to success.

This ban is basically handing a death sentence to the thousands of Greyhounds now in training and those currently in work.  The better dogs will obviously be sold to other states where racing continues, but with no prospect of a return for the average Greyhound the outcome will be a mass slaughter.   Few are likely to find a new role as household pets.

Greyhound racing has a big following and it is a big industry.   Apart from dedicated racing venues worth millions of dollars its withdrawal will leave a big hole in the wagering industry and cause a blip in employment figures.   It seems defeatist for the government to throw up its hands and insist that regulating this form of racing is simply beyond its ability.

This seems a surrender to the well oiled cadre of animal rights exponents who use infiltration tactics to obtain sensational footage to try and shut down the live meat animal trade and close battery hen egg farming.   With the right legislation and adequate inspection there is no reason that Greyhound racing can not be as clean and legitimate a sport as horse racing.

This ban has a whole year before it comes into force.   It is highly likely that it will be subjected to an interesting court challenge to gain a reversal !