Secrets and spin: How greyhound racing’s golden year went to the dogs

It was supposed to be a golden year for greyhound racing. In 2023, a record 13,650 races took place around the state, a new sponsorship deal with a global gambling giant had netted Greyhound Racing NSW a record funding boost, and prize money had doubled since the Baird government tried and failed to shut the industry down five years earlier.

But, according to industry insiders and a scathing report produced by the industry’s chief veterinarian, the positive spin glossed over many secrets – and many dead dogs.

A report alleging serious breaches of animal welfare in greyhound racing has cast a shadow over the sport.Credit: Louise Kennerley

The animal cruelty allegations detailed for the first time this week are sobering: a massive increase in injured dogs attributed to more frequent races, large numbers of greyhounds dying in cruel conditions, and public claims about the number of animals rehomed grossly inflated “in order to maintain a facade of cleanliness”.

The industry’s alleged problems were laid out in excruciating detail in the report written by Alex Brittan, a former chief veterinarian for Greyhound Racing NSW, the corporate body established by the state government to oversee greyhound racing across the state.

“The industry is unsustainable,” Brittan wrote. “GRNSW’s internal stance and attitude to indentured animal welfare concerns is reprehensible.”

While the report had been circulated among a group of greyhound racing stakeholders for some time, the government was compelled to act when it was tabled in parliament on Tuesday. Greyhound Racing NSW chief executive Rob Macaulay disputed Brittan’s allegations and resigned later that day.

Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris announced on Thursday that Lea Drake, the former head of integrity at the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, had been appointed to run an independent inquiry into Greyhound Racing NSW.

The inquiry will examine Brittan’s animal cruelty claims and a wide range of alleged problems within Greyhound Racing NSW’s management, internal processes, and workplace culture.

Harris has previously been made aware of complaints about the organisation.

A former company secretary of Greyhound Racing NSW, Ian Londish, wrote to the then chair of the body, John Williams, last year with a list of complaints about the organisation’s governance.

Rob Macaulay, second from left, resigned as chief executive of Greyhound Racing NSW after the explosive report from the organisation’s former vet.

The complaint, echoed by other former staff members the Herald spoke to, raised concerns about high-paying consulting and contracting roles with Greyhound Racing NSW and called on the board to review staff appointments.

“There have been senior staff appointments which have not been advertised and which have been made not following a proper selection process,” he wrote.

A law firm, PTW, was appointed to manage the greyhound group’s legal affairs by a previous chief executive, Tony Mestrov, and approved by the board. Other staff at PTW were subsequently appointed to roles within GRNSW.

Macaulay was accused of delaying freedom of information requests, which the organisation is obliged to comply with despite being a corporate body established by the government and not a government agency.

Empty stands at Wentworth Park Greyhound races on Thursday night.Credit: Louise Kennerley

“Rob became quite angry and publicly ordered [the staff member] to wait until the last day to respond,” Londish wrote. “As you will understand, this is … certainly a very poor example of compliance culture by a CEO.”

The complaint also alleged that Macaulay dismissed staff via text message or while staff were away on holiday, and required other managers to break the news of dismissals to staff while Macaulay was out of the office.

Macaulay has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to the allegations raised by Londish. He and Greyhound Racing NSW declined to comment when contacted by the Herald this week.

An external law firm was retained by the greyhound body to investigate the allegations, but its findings have not been made public.

‘It is utterly immoral to allow yet more greyhounds to enter this unsustainable morass of exploitation and suffering.’

Alex Brittan, former chief veterinarian of Greyhound Racing NSW

A freedom of information request lodged by the Herald last year seeking information about payments from Greyhound Racing NSW to external companies was largely denied.

Racing Minister David Harris said at the time: “It’s vital that the governing bodies and senior leadership of the state’s racing codes meet the highest standards of integrity.”

The veterinarian’s report, which became known in greyhound racing circles as the Brittan Communique, was lobbed into this already tense situation on June 15.

The 54-page document outlines a litany of animal welfare and corporate governance allegations.

The experienced vet wrote that greyhounds born in the system had only two options for leaving – to be rehomed or to die. Yet, the numbers didn’t add up, with rehoming rates falling far short of the necessary number, resulting in more and more dogs being held in industrial kennels.

Minister for Gaming and Racing David Harris announced an inquiry into the NSW greyhound industry, this week.Credit: Nikki Short

“The internal acceptance is that this hidden population is a Gordian knot, an unsolvable problem, that will need to just die,” Brittan wrote.

“The rehoming rate is so poor that, even if the export quota reached the required rate of 3600 [per annum] in 18 months, a further 3500–4000 greyhounds will have already been added to this unrehomable mass of greyhounds trapped within the industry with no hope of a domestic life,” he wrote.

“Until the existing backlog of unrehomed greyhounds is acknowledged and addressed, it is utterly immoral to allow yet more greyhounds to enter this unsustainable morass of exploitation and suffering.”

Numerous welfare issues

The industry fiercely contested the numbers in Brittan’s report and said he misinterpreted the data. However, some in the racing community expressed scepticism about the practicalities of rehoming. One Greyhound Racing NSW staff member said an expensive radio advertising campaign yielded just a single applicant.

Brittan identified numerous other animal welfare issues. In a separate research paper written for Greyhound Racing NSW, he wrote that travel compensation payments made to racing dog owners appeared to create an incentive to race dogs more frequently and enter races that dogs had little chance of winning. The payments had coincided with a sharp rise in the number of injured dogs. Around 11 dogs a day suffered a race or post-race injury in NSW.

The research is potent ammunition for animal welfare groups, who point out that Australia is one of only seven nations where dog racing is legal and has more tracks than the rest of the world combined.

Premier Chris Minns has indicated that, whatever the findings of the Drake inquiry, the sport will not be banned. NSW Labor was a staunch supporter of the industry when former Liberal premier Mike Baird sought to ban it in 2016 following a raft of animal abuse findings.

Baird faced fierce resistance from within the Coalition as many Nationals opposed the ban, and the then-premier was pummelled by sections of the media, including News Corp and talkback radio commentator Alan Jones.

Jones dined with the premier at his Circular Quay apartment the night before Baird announced his backflip. “You can overplay this animal welfare thing,” Jones said afterwards. “At the end of the day, there are people here who are being driven to penury and suicide, and when I explained that to him, he understood. He just kept saying, ‘I was wrong’.”

The sport still has many friends, including former senator John Williams, who wrote an opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday backing Macaulay and his determination to implement the findings of the 2016 McHugh report into racing cruelty.

“Macaulay took on the job with an energy you rarely see,” Williams wrote. “Others told me that Macaulay slept with the McHugh Report and its list of industry failings and recommendations under his pillow. It wasn’t a joke.”

But as race day attendances have dwindled, the sport’s heavy reliance on online betting money has left it vulnerable, supporters believe.

Macaulay wrote to industry stakeholders in August last year, warning them that a federal House of Representatives committee had recommended a ban on online gambling inducements and ads. He urged them to mobilise and “take a stand against this threat”, contact MPs, and start a campaign against online gambling changes.

“As you know, racing is funded by state taxes on wagering,” he wrote. “If they kill wagering, they kill the sport.”

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.