Dogs’ Homes stands firm on Greyhound racing

Call for a Tasmanian Parliamentary inquiry into taxpayer funding of Greyhound racing

Dogs’ Homes of Tasmania CEO Mark Wild has joined animal welfare organisations around the state in calling for a Tasmanian Parliamentary inquiry into taxpayer funding of Greyhound racing.

The renewed call followed a fresh wave of highly publicised scandals in the industry, including allegations by the former chief vet of Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) of widespread animal abuse, and persistent reporting and oversight failures.

Mark was joined by RSPCA Tasmania CEO Andrea Dawkins and Greens MLC Cassy O’Connor at a Hobart news conference that coincided with the launch of a new e-petition to State Parliament calling for a joint select committee to “examine the economic and welfare implications of the Greyhound racing subsidy ahead of any renewal of its current 20-year funding deed”.

CEO Mark Wild with Greyhound Comet
CEO Mark Wild with Comet at the Hobart Dogs' Home

They were backed at the event by 10 other animal welfare groups including the Companion Animal Network of Australia (a national advocacy group of which the Dogs’ Homes is a member), the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds, the Tasmanian Dog Walking Group, Kingborough Dog Walking Association and Huon Valley Dog Walking Association.

In a report tabled in NSW Parliament, former GRNSW chief vet Alex Brittan made four major allegations: that dogs were being pushed past their physical limits, resulting in high stress, injury and deaths on race tracks; that the industry sustained an unusually high death rate; that dog deaths were going unreported; and that dogs who were supposedly being rehomed as pets were in fact left “trapped in the industry” because there were too many Greyhounds — up to 13,000 — to move on.

NSW Premier Chris Minns last week set up an independent inquiry into dog racing. A similar inquiry in South Australia resulted in the SA Government giving the Greyhound racing industry two years to improve its standards, or the sport will be banned.

Disco in the care of the Dogs' Homes
Snowy in the care of the Dogs' Homes
Allan in the care of the Dogs' Homes

In Tasmania, Lianne Salerno, the former manager of the industry’s own rehoming arm, the Greyhound Adoption Program, went public in July last year with reports of evidence of systemic abuse, neglect and cruelty she witnessed from trainers in her two years running that program.

At the end of last year, Tasmanians were shocked by drone footage showing appalling conditions at allegedly some of the state’s large Greyhound racing kennels. 

“There is overwhelming evidence that the vast majority of Tasmanians do not want their precious tax dollars used to prop up state-sanctioned animal cruelty in an industry that clearly has no long-term future and has run out of multiple chances to reform itself,” the news conference was told.

“Dog racing is a wholly unnecessary evil that should no longer receive a single red cent of taxpayer revenue, especially in a cost-of-living crisis. To continue to claim, in the face of this mountain of evidence, that industry participants love their dogs is as ludicrous as it is tragic.”

Take action — click the button below to read the petition and sign it:

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Greyhounds need couches.

Not tracks.

Sign the Parliament e-petition to END GREYHOUND RACING — backed by transition plans for the industry.

Help stop the public funding of an industry linked to unacceptable death rates, injuries, and suffering.

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