Greyhound racing’s welfare success shouldn't be ignored

I think you've been listening to Alan Jones to much Dez as you've become a real spin doctor. Firstly no dogs were removed from the McFarlane property. Secondly I never said I was a victim of over reaction from the stewards. As far as the few dogs that I've owned I kept 2 for myself and several other were accepted into the GAP program and are very happy. Did your great uncle also tell you to never let the truth get in the way of a good story. If stewards stopped their selective raids and made random raids on all greyhound racing, harness racing and thoroughbred racing, then people would certainly lift their standards to those required.

55 dead dogs found in QLD. The tired old "bad apples" statement will be on high circulation.

Dave, Check out "Scotty" if that is her real name. Me thinks she doth protest too much.

Hello "Scotty", Thanks for the clarification. You say you are a victim of "overreaction" by GRNSW. Given the laughable penalties for positive drug swabs, the suspension of dogs would indicate a serious breach on your part. Let's call them the R#####A, used words like putrid, some dogs without shelter or bedding. Be interested to hear what happens to your dogs when they retire? My Great Uncle told me, you never forget the first one, the trick is not look them in the eyes. They know.

Let's get a few facts straight, there were no dogs removed by stewards from the McFarlane property. The property in general was up to what's required but one kennel block holding the pre trainers as it's 30 years old didn't meet with the recent specifications as laid down by the stewards. If there were any sick or injured dogs on the property they would've been taken care of in the right environment. For the stewards to scratch the dogs from Wentworth Park was a complete over reaction considering the well being of the dogs on the property was never in doubt and all that was required was renovations to one kennel block. Sorry DEZ but that's the facts PS : By the way how many people ( yes humans ) around Australia live in houses which would not be up to recent building by laws, if local council building inspectors made random raids, probably 60% or more.

Amen to that. I had to take the admin of GRNSW's social media accounts to task of them lauding Zipping Willow after he retired once he was knocked out from the Golden Easter Egg. Seems odd to me they were praising a dog that only days ago they went to court to try and prevent even running. Complete hypocrites.

The Golden Easter Egg has no credibility, now that GRSNW allowed suspended dogs owned by suspended trainers.

How about posting an article reviewing the Golden Easter Egg for this weekend, Nathan?

Exactly, downplay everything. Make it seem like no big deal. I mean you would assume the conditions must be pretty bad to have been suspended over it, so how about some details? Where is the transparency with this? Also I would like to make another point with regards to those running the greyhound industry. They claim they had no knowledge of live baiting. 1) I don't believe you. 2) if 1 is wrong, then it's your job to have known this so you failed at your job anyway. 3) You claim its only a very small minority that engage in live baiting. But hang on, you just claimed you had no idea it was going on. Now you know for a fact its only a small number? So does that mean you lied to us when you said you had no idea it was going on, because otherwise how would you know only a small number were engaging in this practise? Thats the problem, you start out with one lie, then you need another to cover that one up. Then the following lie exposes the first lie, and so on and so forth.

Sorry for calling you Simpson, Point well made. Also what you are saying shows the weakness in the national body Greyhounds Australia. Before the Minster sacked the GRNSW they flicked passed the welfare problem to the National Body which is classic shift the mess of your own desk stuff. The National Body used to be a bureau for an annual conference with the nine control board reps. It has now become a company with the same reps structure and its totally unworkable as it acts in the interest of the nine empire builders. Also as a conference they attended to all commonwealth related legislation. There is proposed federal legislation in committee at the moment concerning the crimes and animal welfare which involves incidents from the greyhounds. Were is the GA submission to the inquiry???. Organisation 101 together with extracts from Boards That Work was distributed to all race clubs in NSW but what level it was read otherwise i could not say. The NSW Board of 2002 knew of its existence.

Well said, Classic case of GRNSW having no clue or spine is that after a tip-off, they raided big name trainer Lisa McFarlane and her husband from Jerrawa. Dogs in poor health were taken and the ones who weren't were suspended from racing until vet checked. GRNSW could have released a statement showing they were serious about welfare but instead, to highlight Dave's comments, they release this watered down statement "GRNSW advises that, following a routine kennel inspection by GRNSW compliance officers, registered participants Ian McFarlane and Lisa McFarlane have been issued with a seven-day work directive in respect of the general condition of their facility". Under the conditions of the directive, four greyhounds trained by Ms McFarlane who were engaged to race at Wentworth Park this evening have been withdrawn by order of GRNSW stewards. Clueless. GRNSW understated the serious in their web site. http://m.thedogs.com.au/News/NewsArticle/6238

With regards to Zipping Willow, while I accept that its at the lower end of the scale, and I realise the high profile of this particular dog may make it a 'special case', there is still a principle involved. The bottom line is the NSW authorities attempted to ban the dog from racing. This is absolute fact with no question about it. As such it needs to be very clear in its message to the general public that when they are pursuing these allegations of live baiting, they are following through. When you have them one day attempting to ban a dog, then the next singing its praises, regardless of the nuances of the case it sends mixed messages to the public. Look at the clumsy way the greyhound industry has dealt with the crisis state-by-state. In NSW sacked immediately. In Victoria having to be eventually pushed out. In QLD, only one leading figure to my knowledge has been suspended. My point being is you have entirely different reactions going on. You've got organisations saying one thing, doing another. If I was running greyhounds in NSW I would have said that we do not put out a story praising a dog that only yesterday we were trying to ban. This is called 'Running an organisation 101'. A course that GRNSW staff seem not to have done.

True Jim, The mid week races should be called the "BALEHOUNDS". The guy responsibly for the Bale dogs , who I shall not mention, has approx 350 dogs at his puppy factory. I's like to know where all his 'surplus" pups are. Given that litters need to be registered within 14 days of whelping in order to race, I'm guessing there a lot of tiny skeletons in his closet. Make it very expensive to be involved in the industry. Make it very hard to get a trainer's licence and to keep it. Make it very expensive to dispose of a dog.

In NSW 24,000 greyhounds raced year to date in 1990 to compete in the same number of races that they do now with 9,500 greyhounds. The greyhounds on average run more races per year each and as racing greyhounds overall produces negative returns the cost of racing greyhounds per dog per year has gone up. The point that no healthy animal should be destroyed is well taken but research in the computer ager should not be difficult to come up with accurate figures and I congratulate Nathan as a scientist for taking a scientific approach to the subject. Dave Simpson, I think there has to be a disconnect between the greyhound control board, Greyhound Australasia and the greyhound community. The Greyhound community are interested in greyhound welfare in a vital manner. The Racing Authority and its National Body are as you say not focussed. This is obvious by the points you are making. Just on the 10,000 labradors-generally speaking missing numbers of dogs are not known as these type of stats are difficult to assess and obtain. There was a reduction of destroyed dogs in the USA from 11 million to 5 million with the population of dogs round the 84 million mark. There are 110 million domestic dogs in China and 300 greyhound tracks.

Jim, I never gave animal welfare a second thought until I accidentally adopted a rescue Greyhound. Alas the poor horses are classified livestock even though they are only used, like the Greyhounds for our entertainment. I am aware that very few knackers yards know how to administer the bolt to head properly. A horses' brain is further back from the skull so if not done properly they're still alive and awake and in agony as the butchering begins. Makes me angry seeing these Racing carnival ads with pretty young things in suits and frocks. I love the slogan "You bet they die". So apt.

The issue of overbreeding is a huge issue - as they let every donkey out there breed pups if they want to and are willing to pay the feeds. It sounds awful, but a centrally controlled breeding program, that seeks to 'selectively' breed pups from the best race dogs, may at least cut down on the enormous, completely avoidable breeding that takes place of dogs that will never make it, as well as keeping greater control over the welfare of the animals involved.

This is what happens when you allow the industry to self regulate - pure incompetence and a lack of any true regulation will let those willing to push the limits get away with anything. As for Zipping Willow - I think you'll find it was basically on 'loan' in Melbourne (for I assume a big group race), and was in the kennels of a trainer caught up in the live baiting scandal - with all dogs then attempted to be banned. They were i beleive different trainers to the normal trainers in Sydney - still no excuse of course for the live baiting issues, but there is some doubt in that case as to whether it was actually involved in the live baiting incidents.

Have you looked at the euthanasia rates in horse racing Dez? You might find that there is exactly the same story going on there, if you bother dig past the 'glamour' image tha the industry tries to create int he media. There is about as much integrity int he results of greyhound racing, as there is in harness racing with the red hots, and there are plenty of dodgy characters involved in the horse racing game as well.

The problem is that you say that currently around 13,000 are named, with another 4, 5 or 6,000 no named. This gives us around 18,000 greyhounds born each year. We know for a fact that through the main greyhound adoption agencies, at best they would rehome maybe 1,000 to 2,000 each year max. The owners themselves may keep some, but even so we are still talking many 1,000's simply unaccounted for. What makes it worse is that the racing industry themselves don't even have full and proper numbers as to how many are being euthanized. In which other industry would you be allowed to shrug your shoulders and go 'I dont know' when asked about what has happened to your main number 1 product after they have served their usefulness? The greyhound industry need to start collating and publishing full numbers including the number who have been euthanised. If 10,000 labradors a year just went missing there would be an outcry. Owners should be made responsible for what happens to their dogs. They should be limited as to how many they can have euthanised and should be penalised with the possible loss of registration if they haven't done everything in their power to rehome a greyhound. The racing industry is living in complete denial. You have owners circumventing rules laid down due live baiting with dogs simply given 'to the wife' and allowed to continue racing unpunished. And for the industry to go 'But we don't have the powers' ... well what were you doing before all of this? Where were your calls for your powers to be strengthened? There were no calls, because they just didnt care. And they still don't care. Have a look at Greyhound Racing NSW's facebook page. An entire story about Zipping Willow and asking people to comment on their memories of the dog. Yet it was only days ago they actively tried to ban the dog due to its trainers being done for live baiting. The racing industry continues to be completely hypocritical. They say one thing to our face, then do completely the other. And to be honest, I wouldnt hire anyone in the industry to run a p.. up in a brewery. Incompetence from the top all the way down.