Greyhound ban: Mike Baird to announce reversal based on industry guarantees to end dog slaughter
UPDATE: GREYHOUND racing will resume with a new sense of optimism today since news broke Baird was expected to overturn his ban on the industry.
NSW
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GREYHOUND racing will resume with a new sense of optimism today with Bathurst hosting the first meet since news broke Premier Mike Baird was expected to overturn his ban on the industry.
“I thought he’d backed himself into a corner and would be too stubborn,” Bathurst Greyhound Club track manager Jason Lyne said.
“But now we have hope.
“Whatever happens, he can’t take back the pain, stress and heartache they’ve already caused for these people.”
The Daily Telegraph reported today that Baird would announce a backflip on the ban he declared in July, as early as tomorrow following a cabinet discussion.
“It will be a very sleepless night for a lot of us,” Mr Lyne said.
He said his tight-knit industry had wondered “why us”.
“And other industries around us, the farms, the knackeries, they’re all wondering if they’re next,” he said.
He said the reform measures proposed by the Greyhound Alliance, including a lifecycle plan for every greyhound born into the industry and zero tolerance of animal cruelty, were realistic.
“They are definitely achievable and definitely measurable which is the main thing, there are ways to measure whether these rules are working,” Mr Lyne said.
Racing begins at 3.28pm in Bathurst today.
Mr Baird is expected to make the announcement as early as tomorrow after a scheduled cabinet meeting, with the policy to require legislation including the overturning of the Greyhound Racing Prohibition Act, which parliament passed in August.
That law, as it stands, meant greyhound racing would be banned in NSW from July 2017 with penalties of up to one year’s jail for anyone who conducted a race.
The reversal policy is expected to be partly based on a plan of action devised by the Greyhound Alliance and presented to government just before the government controversially voted to ban the industry in August.
That plan included four guarantees, including that there be:
A total life cycle management for all greyhounds born into the industry, including every greyhound unable to race as well as retired dogs.
A controlled breeding program which would limit the number of greyhounds being bred for racing in NSW to 2000 annually.
A “zero tolerance” attitude towards animal cruelty which would result in lifetime bans for any participants found to have been involved in live baiting.
Strict standards on racing to attempt to prevent injury to dogs.
The Baird government has bled politically on the issue since July 7 when Baird, having received a Special Commission of Inquiry report on the industry from retired High Court judge Michael McHugh, announced the ban.
That report said thousands of dogs were being killed per year and live baiting was widespread.
“It won’t be a green light (to) go back to where it was three months ago,” one source said.
“Mike is about stopping animal cruelty.
“Basically they said ‘we'll guarantee you no wastage’.”
The suggestion is that jail penalties for animal cruelty would be created and beefed up under the changes.
News of the turnaround came as Deputy Premier Troy Grant appeared in public with his ministerial colleague, Skills Minister John Barilaro, who had threatened to run for Nationals leader if the ban were not reversed.
Sources said Mr Grant was aware of the change in policy and the fact that Nationals now knew a policy change was coming had “taken the heat” out of tonight’s Nationals party room meeting where there were fears Mr Grant could face a challenge.
It is understood a majority of the 23-member National Party room had been against the ban, with Mr Barilaro and ministerial colleagues Niall Blair and Paul Toole pushing for an overturning of it ahead of the Orange by-election on November 12 amid fears the Nationals could lose the safe seat.
Nationals had speculated that were Mr Grant to stick with the ban, he could be replaced as leader and the Nationals might even vote with Labor to overturn the greyhound racing ban sending the Coalition government into crisis.
The government’s Greyhound Transition Taskforce Co-ordinator General John Keniry had been due to report this week on a compensation package for greyhound owners and trainers once the government went ahead with the ban. The Daily Telegraph revealed last week that Dr Keniry attempted to resign from his position a month ago because he opposed the ban, but was talked out of leaving.
UNLEASHING A FAMILY’S RACING DREAM
CASTLEREAGH dog trainer Mitchell Pryce says that if Mike Baird reverses his ban on greyhound racing, it will be a “dream come true”.
The 33-year-old building surveyor went back to work in recent weeks and asked his partner Sarah to take care of his dogs as he fearfully waited for next year’s proposed ban.
Mr Pryce, who has a three-year-old daughter Savannah and an 18-month-old son Bentley, had even considered moving interstate to continue in the industry.
However, he said he instead decided that if the ban came into place, he would quit and take a $400,000 hit — the amount he had spent on his greyhounds.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Mr Pryce said. “I didn’t know how one man could stop an industry based on a small percentage of people doing the wrong thing.
“The thought of moving interstate and the (debate) in my head, between my family and my dream.
“It was either following my dream of continuing in greyhounds or destroying my family’s dream of being around their grandparents.
“It has turned everyone’s life into turmoil but I made the decision that if the ban went ahead I was, more or less, going to cut my losses.
“Every dog cost two and a half thousand dollars ... to get them up to 18 months old.”
Trainer Mark Gatt, who famously recently confronted Premier Mike Baird in the street about the ban, said: “The best way to explain it (a reversal) is it would make my bad dream go away.
“It’s like a bad dream you wake up from.
“It (the ban) has been like a death in the family.
“You believe somebody’s died, you wake up every day and it’s like that.”
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