Retired greyhounds to continue to be rehomed overseas despite ‘distressing and sometimes fatal’ outcomes | Greyhound racing

Retired New South Wales greyhounds will continue to be rehomed overseas despite an independent review of the racing industry concluding the practice is “regrettable and sometimes fatal”.

The state government has also rejected a proposal to suspend the sport if operator Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) fails to set new racetrack standards by the end of the year.

Lea Drake has called for a sweeping restructuring of the sport following a year-long investigation sparked by a GRNSW worker warning that the industry had become an “unsustainable swamp of exploitation and suffering” by 2024.

being released report On Tuesday the NSW government announced it would require greater oversight but stopped short of delivering on key recommendations.

Six greyhounds died either in transit or while preparing to travel to the United States under a rehoming program launched in 2023, Drake wrote.

Three of the dogs were found dead in their crates upon arrival in the US; The investigation heard evidence that the dogs’ deaths occurred due to stress or heat exposure during long-haul flights.

Another dog was euthanized at Sydney airport after it was found with a fractured spine after escaping from a transport van. Former GRNSW chief vet Alex Brittan said the death was attributed to an accidental collision with a fence, saying the van’s kennel would have resembled a starter box for the animal.

In his report, Drake called for an end to the practice as “there can be no meaningful oversight of exported greyhounds”. [and] “It can be distressing and sometimes fatal for dogs.”

The government will only ask GRNSW to prioritize domestic rehoming programs “where possible” under a new operating license to be issued next year.

On Tuesday, NSW racing minister David Harris said policing greyhounds shipped overseas would be an “operational issue” for GRNSW.

NSW upper house MP Emma Hurst, of the Animal Justice Party, said the government’s response “fell short of the desperate need to end the greyhound racing industry”.

GRNSW chief executive Steve Griffin said on Tuesday he had “got the government’s response right”.

Dogs that died during the U.S. rehoming program represent just 0.4% of the 1,400 animals rehomed under the program, he said.

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This figure is still 10 times higher than the GRNSW target for fatal injuries during racing, the report said; This figure is less than one in every thousand dogs.

The government will also require greater oversight of GRNSW’s greyhound rehoming programs and the reporting of greyhound deaths from unknown causes. There was no limit placed on the number of greyhound births, which Drake encouraged to ensure dogs “don’t go on to live after competing in kennels”.

The report said the number of births was not effectively regulated and had remained steady at around 3,800 a year since 2016, when the industry faced the threat of a ban under then-prime minister Mike Baird and reversed itself after a backlash from the industry.

While many greyhounds spend long periods of time in kennels, inadequate monitoring of retired dogs may have failed to detect cases where people adopted greyhounds and then euthanized them.

The report also accused GRNSW of poor staff management and “high and wasteful” spending, and found it had failed to deliver racetracks to the standards it had set.

No NSW racetracks have met the state’s minimum standards since the GRNSW set minimum standards in 2020.

An average of at least one dog died and 300 were injured at races in NSW this year, according to statistics from regulator Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission (GWIC).

Drake’s report to the government in August recommended that new track standards be set by the end of this year and implemented by the end of 2026, and called for the sport to be suspended if any of these deadlines are not met.

Harris did not commit to meeting that suspension timeline, saying on Tuesday the government would continue to work with the industry.

“We will then make a decision within 12 months on how many tracks meet these standards and then of course we will look at these issues further down the line,” he said.

Griffin said the review’s timeline for implementing minimum monitoring standards was not achievable.

The 65 recommendations in the 722-page report follow more than 1,600 public submissions and more than 80,000 documents from the investigation, as well as 31 days of hearings between September 2024 and February last year.

The review recommended much greater oversight by the regulator, GWIC, and that GWIC be given “full responsibility” for the welfare matters included in the review.

The government also did not commit to another recommendation of the review: a new statutory greyhound racing industry inspector to oversee both the GRNSW and the regulator the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission (GWIC).

The Minns government published the report on the same day it announced plans to demolish the greyhound racing track at Wentworth Park in Glebe and turn it into green space to support more than 7,000 homes in the area.

The decision could see greyhound racing relegated to regional NSW, but premier Chris Minns said on Tuesday the government wanted to “keep the industry going”.

Sports ban in Tasmania this month passed the state’s lower house. In August the Victorian government said it had no plans to end greyhound racing after an independent analysis found the move could save the state almost $500 million over 10 years.