Michael Watts MRCVS
So the shit has hit the fan in New South Wales. It is a crying shame. I am sorry for those owners who are left with no local track at which to race their dogs and may be forced out of the greyhound game altogether. I am sorry for the trainers who will either have to move their operations to another state or take up a different line of business. I am sorry for them all, but frankly what did any of them expect?
The story all began about eighteen months ago. It is a sorry tale but basically a pretty simple one which goes something like this. Back in February of last year a bunch of undercover television journalists working in cahoots with couple of respected animal welfare organisations managed to film more than a few prominent trainers at several schooling tracks engaging in medieval and barbaric practices involving the baiting of small defenceless live animals by young greyhounds. There is no need to quote chapter and verse as to what exactly they did, except to say that none of the harmless little furry guys survived what cannot fail to have been for them a terrifying and agonizingly painful experience. As a consequence none of those involved who were clever enough to do joined up writing could have failed to guess that what they were doing was likely to be more than ever so slightly illegal.
Being in the shock-horror business, these self-same investigative journalists broadcast their home movies in glorious technicolour on a popular current affairs programme on prime time television all over Australia, with the results you could hardly fail to have predicted. The antis were apoplectic of course. They always are, but this time they were even more so, if such is possible. The urban middle classes were upset and filled with indignation of the righteous kind, the very best kind. A lot of ordinary decent working stiffs who maybe once in a while had the odd TAB bet on a greyhound or an occasional boozy night at the track with their mates suddenly felt a lot less comfortable about the whole business. Australian society was forced to confront a seamy side of the greyhound game of which for the most part they had previously been blissfully ignorant or in some cases had chosen to ignore. One thing was certain, nobody was about to publicly excuse or defend the things that these ockers had been caught red-handed doing, not any time in the next few hundred years. It was inexcusable. Period. End of.
The politicians were not long getting on the bandwagon, Quicker than a Brexit supporter avoiding high office, the Racing Integrity Commissioner in Victoria set up an official inquiry into live baiting on his patch which had a preliminary report on his desk by 11th March ‘15. On 9th April ’15 the Governor of Queensland launched a Commission of Inquiry into greyhound racing in The Sunshine State to be headed up by Alan Mc Sporran Q.C. It reported back to him on 1st June last year. A similar body in New South Wales commenced its investigations on 11th June 2015. Clearly the great & good did not like what they had seen beamed into their living rooms, or did not like the effects it was having on their constituents, and were out in force in search of The Truth.
So what happened next, I hear you ask? Did they find the few rotten apples that, human nature being what it is, are inevitably to be found in any decent sized barrel? Having identified them did they then sanction them, take away their licences, warn them off, tar them and feather them or maybe shoot them at dawn, thus allowing all the good people in the greyhound game to continue making a honest buck like what they did before all the fuss kicked off, ride off into the sunset on a white horse and live happily ever after? If only!
The more the Special Commission of Inquiry looked into the greyhound industry in New South Wales, the more dirt they unearthed. For example Percy Allan, former Chairman of Greyhound racing New South Wales, the regulatory body for greyhound sport in the state, told the Commission that during his term of office “there was never a rumour, let alone an allegation of live baiting that came to my attention”. He seems to have been fairly clear that the problem was confined to a few cowboys on the fringes of the industry. Unfortunately for him one of the lawyers assisting the Commission, Stephen Ruston, had dug up an internal GRNSW report dating from 2009 called Project Welfare which called upon industry stakeholders to come up with ideas as to how best to address welfare problems and specifically mentioned live baiting as one of eleven areas of particular concern. Strange to say, the eleven areas of concern listed in the internal report had been whittled down to seven by the time the list was subsequently published as part of the GRNSW annual report, live baiting being one of those that had fallen by the wayside. If you had a nasty suspicious mind you would think that somebody in GRNSW tried to cover up live baiting as far back as 2009. Mr. Allan either did not know about this when perhaps he should have done, or he tried to cover it up and also tried to conceal the earlier cover up before the Special Commission last year. Any way you look at it the picture is not a pretty one. Mr. Rushton not unreasonably questioned why GRNSW had not simply clamped down on live baiting, rather than just seeking the views of industry insiders as to the best approach to tackling the problem. He went on to answer his own question, suggesting that “live baiting was so entrenched in the industry that to get rid of the proponents of it might not have left too many people standing”. Clearly the problem extended beyond a few dodgy trainers in the fringes of the legitimate sport. The Commission suggested 20% of trainers were involved. Unofficial sources quoted by the television crew who first brought the issue to the light of day suggested the figure was closer to 90%. The precise figure is not important. What is, is that live baiting clearly involved a great many people and extended all the way to the top.
Commissioner Michael Mc Hugh did not just confine his attention to live baiting and the more he looked, the more he had found. Among the skeletons he found in the greyhound industry’s closet were those of somewhere between forty-eight thousand and sixty-eight thousand greyhounds that had been euthanased for being uncompetitive during the previous twelve years. Add to that mortality figure a further one hundred and eight dogs that sustain catastrophic or fatal injuries while racing on New South Wales tracks in an average year and you come up with a grand total that is truly shocking. In the light of these disturbing statistics, Mr. Mc Hugh invited the State Government to consider whether the greyhound racing industry had lost what he termed its “social licence” to operate and should simply be shut down permanently. New South Wales Premier Mike Baird agreed with his analysis of the situation and on 7th July 2016 announced that “as a humane and responsible government we are left with no acceptable course of action except to close the industry down. This is the inevitable conclusion to be drawn from the appalling revelations in Mr. Mc Hugh’s report and his considered view that any other measures are unlikely to protect animals from further cruelty”. As a lover of greyhounds I cannot help but agree with him but as one who also enjoys greyhound sport it is also hard to avoid the conclusion that prompt decisive action by GRNSW back in 2009 or earlier could have avoided the situation in which they now find themselves.
The “antis” of course are cock-a-hoop. Steve Coleman the head honcho of RSPCA NSW says his organisation “is ecstatic that the NSW government has today announced that it will ban greyhound racing in NSW. It is a decision that places the welfare of greyhounds and other innocent animals who have been subjected to cruelty by this industry as the paramount consideration over and above financial interests”. Now I hate to spoil their party but once the champagne corks stop popping and reality sets in the welfare lobby and the industry collectively have one huge problem in front of them. What is to become of all the greyhounds in New South Wales once greyhound racing has been outlawed? Between the lot of them, over the past few years they have been unable or unwilling to rehome those greyhounds that were no longer required for racing. Now they are faced with a much larger number of greyhounds which will need rehomed, presumably in a much shorter timeframe. The industry which in times past was a potential source of funding for greyhound rehoming groups is about to go out of business and so presumably run out of money in the near future.
The NSW government has said that it sees the future option for these greyhounds as including humane euthanasia, remaining in their current home, rehoming as pets through an adoption programme or transfer to other states or other countries that have appropriate animal welfare standards. It is a little bit discouraging to see humane destruction heading the list. Are we looking at a situation where, in order to prevent the nasty greyhound industry from killing large numbers of greyhounds the welfare-friendly state government has put in place measures that will result in the euthanasia of numbers of greyhounds who cannot be found a berth in the time available? I am not defending those who took the slow greyhounds, the lame and the non-chasers on a one-way trip out into the bush and buried them beside a billabong in the shade of a coolibah tree. I am just hoping that a welfare-sensitive government can do better than those low-lifes. If they cannot, they would seem to have shot themselves in both feet as nicely as you like. Jessica Conway, a spokesperson for RSPCA NSW, has given assurances that “humane euthanasia will be the last resort”. One would certainly like to think so, but the fact that it is a last resort does not mean that it is an option that will not be exercised in some cases. Even the most optimistic greyhound re-homer sadly has to recognize that there are always occasional dogs who because of intractable health issues or insurmountable behaviour problems cannot easily be re-homed and face life in an institutional kennels or in A Better Place. Are we however going to have to contemplate the humane destruction of happy healthy dogs in New South Wales just because they are the wrong size, the wrong sex, the wrong colour or generally lack whatever it takes to persuade people to pick them to be their next pet rather than the dog in the next kennel? When the number of dogs up for rehoming is large, this is going to be hard to avoid. It is easy to say that if racing was to continue in the state many of these dogs would die prematurely anyway but what is achieved by being holier-than-thou while presiding over piles of dead dogs in black plastic bags?
The state government has suggested that some of these soon-to-be-retired greyhounds might continue to live on in their current homes. In all probability that would have been the future for some of them anyway, perhaps for those from the smaller hobby-level trainers in particular. However it seems likely that with the end of greyhound racing many kennels, finding that they no longer have any real raison d’etre and that there is no longer any real dough coming in, will simply close. What then of the dogs currently housed there? The RSPCA representatives remind us that “ultimately it’s the responsibility of greyhound owners to look after their dogs”. In law indeed it is, but this approach is not particularly helpful if some owners are accustomed to discharge their legal responsibilities by having their unwanted greyhounds humanely destroyed. It makes little difference to a greyhound whether he was put down for not running fast enough or because his owners had decided to shut up shop in response to the ban on racing when he is at those Pearly Gates getting fitted with wings and a harp.
Rehoming as pets has to be the very best option for those greyhounds who are temperamentally suited to life on the settee. It does not suit every dog however, besides which given the relatively abrupt cessation of racing there are certain to be more dogs seeking pet homes that there are armchairs to accommodate them. In this context it is important not to overlook the pitfalls inherent in rehoming the wrong dog in the wrong home just so as not to have to face up to euthanasing healthy young greyhounds. With racing banned, some dogs are going to draw a losing ticket in the lottery of life, however fervently we might wish it could be otherwise.
Transferring racing or breeding greyhounds to other states will certainly be an option for the time being. However now that dog racing is about to be banned in New South Wales how likely is it that the sport will long survive in other states? There is no reason to believe that the welfare abuses identified in the New South Wales greyhound industry are some sort of local aberration and have not also taken place elsewhere. With the “antis” on a roll after their success in the Premier State, how long can greyhound racing survive elsewhere? Transferring greyhounds from one state to another may be only putting off the evil day. Moving unwanted greyhounds to another country, any country whose welfare legislation measured up to an acceptable standard, was one of the options mentioned by the state government. They need to wake up and smell the coffee. The only countries to which numbers of greyhounds have been exported in recent years are China and Viet Nam where to be polite effective welfare standards are conspicuous by their absence. Ireland, the U.K. and the U.S.A already have more unwanted greyhounds than they can find homes for and are unlikely to want to take in many Australian dogs. At the risk of sounding rude, re-homing unwanted greyhounds in Australia is an Australian problem which will ultimately have to be solved mostly in Australia.
It is hard to know how things will turn out Down Under. Always being a glass-half-empty kind of guy, I find it hard to see a future that doesn’t involve way too many dead greyhounds for my liking. I hope I am wrong.
There are lessons for us all to learn from the current situation. Industry insiders need to realise that they eyes of the world will be upon them more than ever, and that if they are engaged in anything dodgy it needs to stop yesterday. The “antis” need to make sure that proper provision is in place for the needs of retired greyhounds before they go banning anything, lest they create welfare problems as big as those they tried to solve. And columnists? They need to remember that if they want to send a message they should use Western Union……..
