“The only crime those dogs committed was that they weren’t fast enough.”
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The slaughter of up to 68,000 greyhounds during the past 12 years left the NSW government no option but to shut down the industry, Deputy Premier and Minister for Racing Troy Grant said on Thursday afternoon.
Grant appeared alongside NSW Premier Mike Baird following the announcement by the state government that the sport of greyhound racing will be banned in NSW from July 1 next year.
As Racing Minster, Grant said it was a “bloody awful day” for the industry and said he knew the sport as well as many due to his cousin being involved in racing.
But he added he had been left “horrified” by the Special Commission of Inquiry set up last year to investigate the sport.
The Inquiry released some startling figures, stating about 17,500 greyhound pups are born in Australia each year, with NSW having the biggest number. 8000 alone were born in 2014.
The Inquiry also found that 7000 of the 17,500 pups born, that equals 40%, will never race while just 600 greyhounds are "re-homed" annually under Greyhounds As Pets programs.
The Inquiry also released findings from a Confidential April 2015 Greyhounds Australasia report which stated the industry is "responsible for the unnecessary deaths of anywhere between 13,000 and 17,000 healthy greyhounds a year" while adding 74-96% of greyhounds are put down before the age of 42 months.
Australia has 3,800 active greyhound breeders, according to the report, while Deputy Premier Grant said to the Daily Liberal in February of last year that “there are 15,000 people employed or engaged in the sport.”
“This is a tough decision,” Grant said at Thursday’s press conference.
“No government wants to shut down an industry and there are many, many great people in the industry who have done nothing wrong and they have been let down by the industry.”
Baird stated there was a “culture of deception” within the industry and highlighted that the Inquiry found that if greyhound racing was to keep going it would “not be economically viable and it would still lead to the slaughter of dogs.”
Baird reiterated the fact that there was no alternative and the decision made was “the right thing to do”.