Unlike the Greyhounds As Pets program,community-run greyhound rescues mostly depend on donations from the public.
Greyhound Racing NSW’soverall income increased from $67 million to $121.5 million between 2018 and 2022,largely due to dramatic growth in betting agency fees.
State Greens member Abigail Boyd said it was appalling that an industry “that profits from animal cruelty” was able to double its winnings.
“The organisations that work so hard to rehabilitate the tortured dogs they discard have to beg for scraps”.
Joanne Lee from the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds suggested companies such as Ladbrokes,which sponsors several major races,should also donate to the shelters.
A Ladbrokes spokesperson said they preferred to donate to Greyhounds As Pets,and that their betting agency fees contributed to industry safety upgrades.
In a statement,GWIC said it understood rehoming and pet rescues faced pressures from the cost of living and potential pet owners returning to the office after the pandemic,and it would continue to monitor this impact.
Modelling in GWIC’s lifecycle reports indicated a “potential increase in pressure on rehoming” with demand outstripping supply by more than 3000 places,although it admitted this was likely an overestimate.
There were 4702 pups bred last financial year,up from fewer than 4000 in 2019-20. In March 2020,the regulator’s then CEO,Judith Lind,said that 4000 pups a year was a sustainable number for the industry.
GWIC declined to answer questions about whether breeding now exceeded a sustainable number,but said 1500 greyhounds were transferred out of NSW in 2022,outstripping incoming dogs by 49 per cent.
“We think this number of about 4500 is about right,” said Greyhounds Racing NSW CEO Rob Macaulay,adding he believed continued investment in rehoming programs and an increase in owners who keep their dogs after racing could “absolutely” take in these extra dogs.
But community rescues maintain they cannot keep up. At Hounds in Homes in Sydney,Trisha Murphy said she was seeing more two-year-old dogs,when retired greyhounds used to be about four years old.
“We’ve also taken a lot of dogs where a rehoming did not work out because they can be more like a cross between a horse and a dog when they’re that young,” she said.
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Macaulay maintained the industry was now much safer and more ethical than it was when the state government considered its closure in 2016.
The rate of catastrophic injuries – resulting in euthanasia – per 1000 starters reduced from 1.6 in the 2016-17 financial year to 0.5 in 2021-22,which Macaulay attributed to better tracks and upgrades.
But Lee expressed concern there had been little improvement in this rate over the past three years,arguing Western Australia’s industry had a better record of treating seriously injured dogs.
“The dog racing industry should be rehoming all dogs retired each year. The current situation is a disgrace,” she said.
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