A total of 13 dogs have been put down following catastrophic injuries suffered while racing and a further 205 injured in just 7 weeks since the greyhound ban bill was passed.
The NSW Greens revealed the sorry statistics which they collated from individual stewards’ reports of every greyhound race in NSW since the Greyhound Racing Prohibition Bill 2016 passed on 10 August.
The data was used in a report yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald (Greyhound injuries unchanged despite reform promises, new figures suggest).
Greens NSW MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi said the high death and injury toll ‘is the tip of the iceberg and there is no way of knowing what happened to the injured dogs’.
Dr Faruqi said typical injuries include nearside front toe dislocation, thigh injuries and shoulder injuries.
The Special Commission of Inquiry found that ‘Many trainers attempt to deal with greyhound injuries without seeking veterinarian assistance’ and ‘Participants often fail to seek veterinary treatment for injuries – such as moderate lameness – which they wrongly perceive to be not serious. The failure to properly treat such injuries can, however, be career-ending for the dog’ .
The report also raises issues about ‘muscle men’, untrained individuals providing cheap veterinary care that ‘adopt methods of treatment for which there is no credible scientific basis and which can cause very significant pain to the animal’.
Dr Faruqi said ‘the most brutal weekend occurred on the weekend of the 10th and 11th of September when two dogs were euthanased at Bulli after the lure suddenly stopped (ironically in the “Cantheban Stakes’) and another dog fell and was put down at Newcastle.’
Racing of greyhounds will be banned from July 1, 2017.
‘No dog should have to die for the sake of a bet,’ she said.
‘In only the past seven weeks, since the NSW Parliament passed the bill to ban greyhound racing, 13 dogs have been put down due to catastrophic injuries suffered while racing and more than 200 injured. This shows just how much is at stake.
‘Those in NSW Labor trying to overturn the ban need to look at the reality of the greyhound racing and gambling industry.
‘How many dead dogs is enough before Luke Foley and Labor stop their campaign to overturn one of the few decent things this government has done.
‘We have no idea how many of the 205 greyhounds who were issued incapacitation certificates in the last seven weeks are still around. The Special Commission of Inquiry found widespread evidence of trainers seeking inadequate care for injured animals.
‘We know the industry was in terminal decline with multiple tracks slated for closure with or without the ban. A ban, a compensation package for workers and support for greyhound rehoming is the sensible option for everyone involved.
‘The longer the greyhound racing industry is allowed to operate, the more dogs will die. It is a simple equation. July 1, 2017 cannot come fast enough for these poor animals,’ she said.
