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The ABC’s Four Corners program has released sickening footage of training practices involving the use of live baiting within the Australian greyhound racing industry.
Footage emerged after greyhound trainers were secretly filmed at a training facility in Queensland, owned by industry veteran Tom Noble.
The vision shows live piglets, possums and rabbits being strung up and hurled around a training track at high speeds with the dogs in close pursuit. The inevitable end for each animal is a vicious mauling.
Perhaps the most sickening moment shown is of a native possum being hurled around the training track 26 times, with fresh dogs released each lap. As the lure finally comes to a final stop, the possum is seen to be snapped in half, remaining stung to the lure only by its spinal cord.
As the corpse of the possum is removed, the man in picture remarks that the creature is still alive, before a second man jokes, “It wouldn’t have much go in it mate, its guts are ripped out.”
A dead possum hangs from a lure after being chased for almost an hour. (Image: ABC)
As a practice, live baiting has been banned and criminalised for decades. However in an interview with the ABC, Amanda Hill, a former steward for Greyhound Racing Victoria, notes that “It is probably harder to get caught live baiting, than it is to use performance enhancing drugs.”
Racing Queensland CEO Darren Condon was quick to condemn the acts.
“The practice of live baiting is not only criminal, it is abhorrent by its very nature and I am personally appalled by the vision… and the actions of those implicated in this activity,” Mr Condon said.
“There is no place in society for this sort of behaviour, let alone in greyhound racing.”
A piglet strung up to a lure, soon to be chased down by greyhounds. (Image: ABC)
The incident has shone a bright light on an industry that faces a constant battle with animal welfare groups that call for it to be dismantled.
As one of only eight countries in the world with a a commercial greyhound industry, the inevitability of that dismantling in Australia would appear clear to many. In the United States greyhound racing is now illegal in 39 states, and over 50 per cent of of tracks have been closed in the last decade.
However, with such a well established industry in Australia, not to mention the export programs in place that sees Australian trainers supply dogs to some of the world’s busiest tracks, such deconstruction could not simply be achieved with a bulldoze.
In Victoria, along with an independent investigation by the Racing Integrity Commissioner, the state government is moving to allocate up to $3 million from the Victorian Racing Infrastructure Fund towards bolstering Greyhound Racing Victoria’s animal welfare and integrity measures.
The question then becomes whether the industry can be trusted to self regulate and ensure the crimes witnessed on Four Corners are never repeated.
The greyhound industry has long promoted itself as being in high support of animal welfare. Greyhounds Australia proudly communicate their belief and commitment to “The quality and integrity of greyhound racing and the health and welfare of out greyhounds” on their website.
Whether this isolated group of greyhound trainers, practising the most appalling methods imaginable, can be shown to represent any portion of the industry outside of Tom Noble’s training facility will be revealed as the upcoming inquiries are made.
By nature the stakes associated with performance are heightened in a gambling-based industry, as the lure of a big pay day hangs just within reach. In this case the victims of this lure were not those so often associated with gambling, instead innocent animals put to death in the most horrific fashion.
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