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No state in Australia has birth to death tracking of greyhounds.
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Some states like NSW describe their tracking system of ‘whole of life’, but this is misleading.
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NSW’s eTrac system only tracks dogs that are actively racing – see the overblown claims here.
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Due to there being no birth to death tracking, there’s no mechanism to match the number of greyhounds bred to those greyhounds who either do not race or are retired after racing to unidentified third parties.
Consequently, once a racing dog is retired, it’s no longer tracked and is at its most vulnerable. This especially applies to greyhounds given to unidentified third parties by the racing industry via Gumtree ads. There are hundreds of these each month across Australia – see the story of Zipping Princess here.
The RSPCA does not recommend third party rehoming because of the risks involved. Ex-racers can be picked up by criminals who use them as bait dogs in illegal dog fighting rings. Also, ex-racers can be given away for industry participants for free to people who are not committed to caring for a pet, as they’ve not been vetted by a bona fide rescue group.
The NSW Greens are attempting to fix the loophole in NSW’s tracking system, but to date neither of the state’s two major parties have supported this effort.