Six years ago on Thursday, then NSW premier Mike Baird reacted to a searing review of the brutality of the NSW greyhound industry by Michael McHugh — itself prompted by a Four Corners exposé on the industry — by announcing the end of greyhound racing in NSW.
The rest is history: a corrupt industry responsible for the slaughter and torture of tens of thousands of dogs fought back, aided by radio shockjocks and the NSW Labor opposition, and Baird folded within months. His solution was to engage former premier Morris Iemma to review the industry. Iemma reported a few months later, by which time Baird had left politics, and the Berejiklian government promised to implement all but one of his 122 recommendations.
So how’s that working out? The Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds (CPG) has done a stocktake of the recommendations, and progress in most key areas has been risible. Let’s tick them off:
- Whole-of-life cycle tracking of greyhounds. Meant to be one of the crucial reforms, whole-of-life tracking is easily evaded — owners wanting to dispose of dogs can simply send them interstate to be killed, kill them as puppies before they’re microchipped, or “retire” them privately. The killing of pups could have been curbed by another Iemma recommendation of imposing a bond for each puppy. Despite the government’s promise to implement it, the industry killed it off (emphasis on killed)
- A ban on euthanasia, except when administered by a veterinarian when they judge it is in the best interests of the greyhound, and after rehoming efforts, and consideration of a target for “unnecessary euthanasia”. Neither has ever been implemented
- A code of practice based on five key domains — nutrition, environmental opportunity and choice, health, behavioural expression, and engagement and positive stimulation. It allows dogs to be kept in small cages for 23 hours a day
- An end to taxpayer reliance. The Iemma review promised a “self-sustaining industry”. In fact the industry now receives more taxpayer handouts than ever, boasting of “record increases in prize money”, funded entirely by taxpayers, along with tens of millions in capital investment. Bizarrely, the greyhound industry regulator funds extra prize money, and seems to see its role as promoting the industry as much as regulating it. There are no performance requirements, performance targets or monitoring of this funding to determine if it is achieving anything beyond lining the pockets of the industry.
With more taxpayer funding pouring in and no substantial increase in requirements for dog welfare, the industry is now breeding more pups than ever before. The Iemma review considered imposing a cap on breeding numbers across the state with the goal of what the industry likes to call “wastage”, but did not proceed with a recommendation. Since then, according to figures from the industry regulator, there has been a 50% increase in the number of greyhound pups bred. Nationally, according to the CPG, the industry is producing six times more greyhounds than it can rehome.
The industry’s own rehoming service in NSW, Greyhounds As Pets, despite hard-working staff and an army of enthusiastic volunteers, is unable to rehome all the greyhounds it receives from the industry. It ends up euthanising up to 10% of the dogs it receives — in contrast to community rehoming organisations that have a no-kill policy. The industry hasn’t got close to even half of its greyhound rehoming targets.
Meanwhile the industry continues to kill dogs on its racetracks, with 78 dogs killed so far this year and more than 5000 injured, with NSW (23 deaths) and Victoria (24 deaths) in the lead for the most lethal states for dogs.
