Little chance of overturning sporting ban, says Greyhounds Australasia

UPDATE: Australian vets are concerned the NSW government’s decision to ban greyhound racing may force wide-scale euthanasia of the dogs as the industry shuts down.

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AUSTRALIAN vets are concerned the NSW government’s decision to ban greyhound racing may force wide-scale euthanasia of the dogs as the industry shuts down.

Australian Veterinary Association spokesman David Neck described the state government’s outline to re-home thousands of racing greyhounds as “flaky” and said he wanted to see more details before he supported the decision.

“If it involves euthanasia then it has achieved the very thing it was set out to stop, and that’s what the vets are concerned about,” Dr Neck told AAP

Racing’s peak body admits it has little chance of overturning a NSW and ACT ban.

Ban ... Premier Mike Baird, Deputy Premier Tony Grant and RSPCA CEO Steve Coleman.

The RSPCA is pushing for a national ban on greyhound racing after NSW and the ACT outlawed the sport.

The animal welfare organisation has warned if other states and territories don’t follow suit on the ban, breeders and trainers will just move elsewhere.

“I can only hope this (decision) reverberates around the country because the only way to stop live baiting is to end greyhound racing,” RSPCA NSW chief executive Steve Coleman said.

Meanwhile, greyhound racing’s peak body admits it has little chance of overturning the decision to ban the sport in NSW and the ACT.

The ban on racing from July 1 next year, announced by NSW premier Mike Baird on Thursday, is in response to a report that found evidence of systemic animal cruelty within the industry. “Some participants are talking about a challenge,” Greyhounds Australasia chief executive Scott Parker told Melbourne radio station RSN on Friday.

“It has been raised with us and it’s certainly something we won’t avoid talking about.

“But at this stage it seems like a slim chance at best.” Mr Parker said the industry deserves a second chance, having moved to address problems around cruelty since revelations of widespread live baiting 18 months ago.

He said overbreeding - the biggest contributor to “unnecessary greyhound use” - was down 40 per cent.

The industry has also adopted out 2000 greyhounds in the last 12 months.

“While that’s not sufficient, that’s far more than we’ve ever done,” Mr Parker said.

“We would hope the NSW government saw an industry that was acknowledging its problems, focused very much on fixing them and was well on the way to fixing them.”

Damning.... Up to 68,000 greyhounds were killed in the past 12 years because they were deemed uncompetitive.

Mr Parker also took at aim at Mr Baird over a lack of industry consultation and consideration of the impact on the “thousands of people in NSW who have done nothing wrong”.

“The first we heard of it (the ban) was Mr Baird’s tweets,” he said.

Greyhound Racing NSW has temporarily suspended all competition after Mr Baird’s announcement.

GRNSW said the temporary halt was appropriate until it “better understood the immediate implications of the government decision” and “any potential staff, industry and animal welfare concerns”.

A NSW Special Commission of Inquiry report revealed - among other damning findings - that up to 68,000 greyhounds were killed in the past 12 years because they were deemed uncompetitive.

Screen grab from Four Corners special investigation into live Greyhound baiting. Source: ABC

Former High Court judge Michael McHugh’s 800-page report also found that up to 20 per cent of trainers used live animal baits, and 180 greyhounds a year suffered catastrophic injuries such as skull fractures and broken necks.

The state government has vowed to support industry members through the difficult phase but full details of its industry shutdown plan won’t be revealed until later in the year.

But NSW Nationals MP Katrina Hodgkinson has blasted the decision, fearing regional communities will bear the brunt of the shutdown.

“When things such as animal cruelty first came to light they should have clamped down on that straight away, but now we’ve seen this very heavy handed action being taken place ... it’s very disappointing for regional communities,” Ms Hodgkinson told ABC Radio.

NSW Nationals leader and deputy premier Troy Grant was heavy-hearted when explaining the details of the decision on Thursday.

“As the minister for racing, I can say, categorically, this is a bloody awful day,” he told reporters.