Greyhound ban: Owners and trainers hit back at claims many of them are illiterate

EXCLUSIVE: THERE’S a lawyer, a former corporate banker and even a neuroscientist — these are just some of the many greyhound trainers and owners Mike Baird’s government has labelled largely illiterate. And now they’re hitting back at the outrageous slur.

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THERE’S a lawyer, a former corporate banker and even a neuroscientist — these are just some of the many super-brainy greyhound trainers and owners Mike Baird’s government has labelled stupid.

Public servants in Deputy Premier Troy Grant’s Justice Department called greyhound owners and breeders stupid in a creative brief for the government’s greyhound ban advertising campaign, adding insult to injury for an industry facing total wipe-out in less than 10 months.

Law student: Dimity Maher with her pet greyhound Phoenix on the family farm near Singleton / Picture: Peter Lorimer

“Take into account the intended audience. A large number of the target group potentially have low levels of literacy,” wrote Justice Department director of strategic communications Catherine Parker.

Another line said people living in regional NSW are “more likely to be more accepting of small animal deaths (livebaiting) because their lifestyle means they have to kill rabbits etc”.

But the government’s patronising brains trust clearly didn’t do their homework (or maybe a dog ate it) — because the greyhound industry has some of the sharpest minds around.

Take Singleton’s Dimity Maher for example, an award-winning licensed trainer and owner who has a degree in business and is studying for a law degree while juggling work as a local government finance expert and a journalist.

Before the Baird government banned the greyhound industry Ms Maher wanted to use her skills to help improve legal compliance within the dishlicker industry. That idea has gone to the dogs thanks to the ban.

“Baird’s elitism is just becoming ridiculous. He is separating himself from regional NSW so much, it’s really disappointing because his government is supposed to be for the entire state, not just the city,” Ms Maher told the Daily Telegraph.

“You can’t just taint everybody with the same comment. There are so many intelligent people in this industry — academics, scientists, school principals.”

Neuroscientist: Greyhound owner Nathan Absalom pictured at Sydney University where he is a lecturer / Picture: Toby Zerna

Sydney lawyer Vince Murphy, who has been heavily involved with the dishlicker industry for more than 30 years, described the comments as “insulting, malicious and unAustralian”.

Maybe the Baird government was thinking of greyhound racing fan Nathan Absalom when it wrote its creative brief?

Dr Absalom is a University of Sydney neuroscientist, who holds a PhD from the School of Medical Sciences at UNSW and gained post-doctorate qualifications at Oxford.

His mother is a director of the Greyhound Breeders Owners and Trainers Association and the family have always owned ex-racing dogs as pets.

“What frustrates me most is that just because people don’t have the same level of education as me it doesn’t mean they’re not as smart as me — they just may not have had the opportunity to go and chase credentials. It was really belittling to people that I know and respect,” he said of the government’s claims.

Dr Absalom described the greyhound ban as an “overreach” and said problems in the industry could have been fixed.

Perhaps the government had Bryan Young in mind when it was writing its creative brief?

Mr Young holds accounting and master’s degrees.

He enjoyed a long and successful career as a senior manager with Westpac and CommBank before giving it up and buying a plot of land in the Hunter to dedicate his time to breeding and training greyhounds. He has 14 dogs — describing them as his “obsession” — and runs a local newsagent and post office.

“When I read the government’s comments … I just though what an arrogant thing to say. The ban has already devastated me emotionally and this just adds insult to injury — I poured $100,000 into my property.”

Bank manager: Greyhound owner and trainer Brian Young at his training complex near Cessnock / Picture: Peter Lorimer

Greyhound breeder, trainer and owner Michael Eberand, a highly-qualified mortgage broker and former corporate banker added: “The government’s being treating greyhound people as stupid now for many years. It’s unfair.”

The government did not have to look far to see how smart people in the greyhound industry are.

They could have just looked at the McHugh report that was used to justify the ban in NSW.

A document it references by the Working Dog Alliance — the same document infamously quoting the US-based trainer “Ernie” who claimed he drowned pups — has the results of a survey of 2483 greyhound industry participants.

An excerpt from the Baird government’s ‘creative brief’.

It found 29 per cent held an undergraduate degree and 28 per cent had a postgraduate degree. More than a fifth held a trade certificate or TAFE diploma. Only five per cent had not studied past Year 10. Half worked fulltime and 14 per cent worked part-time, 14 per cent were self-employed and 12 per cent were retired.

A very animated NSW Premier Mike Baird answers questions from the opposition on greyhound industry during question time yesterday.

Mr Baird attempted to defend the situation yesterday: “There are low levels of literacy across the community. Multicultural communities, as an example, there are low levels of English literacy.

“So any campaign needs to take account of that. I can understand the concern that’s been raised.”