Andrea Dawkins MP | Greens Animal Welfare spokesperson
The Greens have obtained a list of 1,608 greyhounds who were killed or died before their time over the last 3 and half years from the Office of Racing Integrity.
Right to Information documents confirm the vast majority of these dogs were killed because of a “lack of ability" or they were "unsuitable for racing”.
They were perfectly healthy dogs, who were killed because they didn't run fast enough.
On top of this, hundreds of dogs have been killed because their behaviour was deemed unsuitable for re-homing through adoption programs. Greyhounds are by nature a gentle breed. These statistics are an indictment on the industry.
This industry breeds greyhounds to run fast and earn money, and when they don't they're killed. This is not an industry that breeds dogs for anything other than the making of profits, and it comes at the expense of animal welfare.
Tasracing's claim it will re-home all ex-racing greyhounds after 1 July 2019 is difficult to take seriously, looking at the numbers.
These documents detail a mass slaughter of healthy dogs, that's not only sanctioned by government, but funded by the taxpayer.
The greyhound racing industry is on notice. It has no social licence.
Premier Hodgman must show the kind of leadership his counterparts in NSW and the ACT have, and shut down this cruel industry.
