ANNE FAWCETT<\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New South Wales became the first Australian state committing to shut down greyhound racing after a Special Commission found overwhelming evidence of systemic animal cruelty. The Special Commission of Inquiry into the Greyhound Racing Industry of New South Wales, led by the Honourable Michael McHugh AC QC, found that the rate of \u201cwastage\u201d of uncompetitive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[284,1739,1740,113,122,534],"class_list":["post-2093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ban","tag-greyhound-racing","tag-greyhound-racing-nsw","tag-news-2","tag-nsw","tag-racing"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":402,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":402,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"New South Wales became the first Australian state committing to shut down greyhound racing after a Special Commission found overwhelming evidence of systemic animal cruelty. The Special Commission of Inquiry into the Greyhound Racing Industry of New South Wales, led by the Honourable Michael McHugh AC QC, found that the rate of \u201cwastage\u201d of uncompetitive dogs was 50-70 per cent..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"284":{"name":"ban","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ban"},"1739":{"name":"greyhound racing","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=greyhound-racing"},"1740":{"name":"Greyhound Racing NSW","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=greyhound-racing-nsw"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"122":{"name":"NSW","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=nsw"},"534":{"name":"racing","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=racing"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2093"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2096,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions\/2096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Picture:](\"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Millie-the-bionic-greyhound-135-of-180.jpg\")
<\/a>New South Wales became the first Australian state committing to shut down greyhound racing after a Special Commission found overwhelming evidence of systemic animal cruelty.\r\nThe Special Commission of Inquiry into the Greyhound Racing Industry of New South Wales, led by the Honourable Michael McHugh AC QC, found that the rate of \u201cwastage\u201d of uncompetitive dogs was 50-70 per cent (between 48,891 and 68,448 dogs over a 12 year period). The Inquiry found evidence that 10 to 20 per cent of trainers engaged in the practice of live baiting.\r\nDespite previous efforts to clean up the industry, deaths and injuries went unreported to Greyhound Racing New South Wales. The report found that \u201cmany trainers appear to prefer cheap and sometimes painful methods of treating greyhound injuries instead of using the services of qualified veterinary surgeons.\u201d\r\nOn the subject of live baiting, the reported concluded that \u201cthere is a very real risk that, once the harsh spotlight of this Commission is removed from the industry, the practice of live baiting will thrive once more.\u201d\r\nThe report recommended two options: the first, to close down the industry. The second, to maintain the industry but undertake reforms to improve transparency and governance, and reduce the number of greyhound deaths.\r\nIn a shock announcement, Premier Mike Baird, alongside Deputy Premier and Minister for Racing, Troy Grant, said that the NSW Government would act \u201cto protect animal welfare as a priority\u201d by shutting the industry down by July 1, 2017.\r\n\u201cAs a humane and responsible Government, we are left with no acceptable course of action except to close this industry down,\u201d Baird said.\r\nOn a statement posted on Facebook, Baird acknowledged that those reliant on the industry may be adversely impacted by the decision.\r\n\u201cOne of the issues we have had to wrestle with is the positive impact of the greyhound racing industry,\u201d the post read. \u201cThere are over 1000 direct jobs in the industry and nearly 6000 registered owners of greyhounds. Dog racing can be an important part of the social fabric of regional towns. And, of course, having a punt on the dogs over a few beers us good fun for many people. So, as Mr McHugh asked, do such benefits of the dog racing industry outweigh the shortcomings? Based on this report, the Government believes they do not.\u201d\r\nTo mitigate potential adverse consequences, the transition plan would include an animal welfare plan for existing greyhounds, including opportunities for rehoming; an adjustment package for those directly employed in the industry and an arrangement for existing greyhound NSW assets such as tracks so that they could be used as open public spaces, alternative sporting facilities or other community facilities.\r\nAnimal welfare and rights organisations, including the RSPCA, Animals Australia and Voiceless were quick to praise the decision.\r\n\u201cNo amount of legislative or policy change could have regulated away the cruelty inherent in this \u2018sport\u2019,\u201d Voiceless spokesperson Elise Burgess said.\r\nBut Greyhound Racing New South Wales released a statement expressing dismay at the result.\r\n\u201cIn the past 16 months, GRNSW has transformed the organisation and regulation of the industry to significantly improve animal welfare and supervision of the industry,\u201d it read. \u201cGRNSW had taken decisive action as it strived to recover community trust and believed that its reforms and strategic direction could have transformed the sport into a stronger sustainable one in which animal welfare and integrity were fundamental to a vibrant future.\u201d\r\nThe organisation suspended all racing for seven days following the announcement.\r\nACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr supported the ban, describing the findings as damning.\r\n\u201cHaving had an initial look at the NSW report, we agree with the decision of the NSW government. There is no future for this industry in the ACT,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will consider the findings of the NSW report before announcing a process to end the practice of greyhound racing in the ACT.\u201d\r\nThe Australian Veterinary Association issued an alert to members stating it was committed to ensuring the welfare of the greyhounds in the industry, and those in other states.\r\nAVA spokesperson David Neck expressed concerns about the animal welfare policy, urging the Government to work with the AVA to devise a plan for a responsible shut down.\r\n\u201cIf it involves euthanasia then it has achieved the very thing it was set out to stop, and that\u2019s what the vets are concerned about,\u201d he told AAP.\r\n