Australian Federation of Greyhound, Breeders Owners & Trainer Fact Sheet
1. Greyhounds are a noble, centuries old breed, which like thoroughbred and standardbred horses, are purpose bred to race. Our industry, through careful breeding selections and veterinary care, has developed a near perfect animal athlete, a beautifully natured, sound animal that has virtually none of the many flaws and ailments facing other common domestic canines.
2. Our greyhounds love to race and compete, as Professor Paul McGreevy in his Four Corners interview stated:
“A greyhound chases to catch, not to kill. These dogs love racing, they love moving around at speed, they’ll be getting off on this”.
And we love to race our greyhounds. Greyhound racing represents the closest relationship imaginable between canine and human, in any
endeavour.
3. As an industry, greyhound racing provides an estimated $1billion in economic activity and employs an estimated 10,000 full time equivalent positions nationwide. Thousands of families are reliant on greyhound racing for their livelihood while millions of Australians enjoy the recreational, social and wagering opportunities that it provides.
4. Our members are on record as to their opposition to the use of illegal methods, including the use of live animals, to train greyhounds. It is cruel and unnecessary; it has no place in modern day training techniques. We fully endorse reforms to law enforcement and compliance, along with the education of participants, to ensure any form of animal cruelty is completely stamped out.
5. Reports of widespread banning of greyhound racing overseas are incorrect. Many animal rights groups are happy to misrepresent facts, and seek donations to help fund these practices. Greyhound racing can be legally conducted in all States of America bar Idaho, which bans the racing of all dogs, not just greyhounds. The USA greyhound racing industry currently rehomes near on 100% of all retired racing greyhounds. Racing is also conducted in over 25 countries around the world including England, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa and other countries.
6. Although greyhounds are bred to race, they also make great pets. We reject the figures reported in the media as to the level of dogs not making the racetrack and being euthanized. These figures fail to account for the thousands we retain ourselves and the further thousands that are made available for adoption through both industry and private rehoming agencies. A substantial number are also kept for breeding and like every other breed some will die through natural causes. While we reject the figures published in many media outlets, we fully agree that any number being euthanized, is unsatisfactory and must be all addressed with unflinching commitment. Many initiatives will be recommended to greyhound racing regulators and to the NSW Special Commission of Inquiry in the near future, including determining and managing sustainable breeding numbers, opportunities that extend the racing lives of our greyhounds and decrease the proportion that do not race. We fully support the expansion of high-quality, well co-ordinated and properly marketed rehoming programs. We thank the rehoming groups who currently support our industry, and we know you have not had the support that you deserve. We intend to fix this.
7. Just like other animal industries, individual tracking of greyhounds is fundamental to our industry; the community expects this and so do we. While we already have tracking underway in some states, we expect our regulators to implement a flawless national lifetime system that provides full accountability of each greyhound to their human custodians.
8. We strongly endorse the scientific research being undertaken by the new administration of Greyhound Racing NSW, supported by other regulators. We absolutely support any and all work carried out to ensure safer tracks for our greyhound athletes as well as studies into chase stimuli and breeding traits. A lot of groundwork has already been undertaken by our members and we look forward to greatly advancing this research.
9. Our industry has lacked leadership and even though each State may be operating on different levels of investment, we are calling for a nationwide approach including prizemoney levies that raise funds for on-going scientific research (example, a 0.5% nationwide levy would raise $0.5 million pa), and reallocation of current registration fees to rehoming with an additional rehoming opportunity levy (example $100 for each greyhound at 6 months of age). Together, these levies could raise in the order of $1.5 million annually for rehoming programs and provide the opportunity for owners to brand their greyhounds as ‘Adoption Bound’. We would also support a process where potential adoptees could come to know their greyhounds while they are racing, if they wished to do so, including their racing owners.
10. Further and very importantly, we are calling for a re-appraisal in respect to the millions of dollars of earnings from greyhound racing currently directed to other stakeholders including state governments, TABs and other racing
codes.
Brenton Wilson
President Australian Federation of Greyhound Breeders, Owners & Trainers
President Queensland Owners, Trainers and Breeder’s Association
Geoff Rose
Chairman NSW Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainer’s Association
Sandra Reed
Vice President Victorian Greyhound Owners, Trainers and Breeder’s Association
Neil Mann
President South Australian Greyhound Owners, Trainers and Breeder’s Association
Phil Worthington
President WA Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainer’s Association
Graeme Barber
President Tasmanian Greyhound Owners, Trainers and Breeder’s Association
