Shocking revelations have highlighted the appalling suffering of greyhounds in NSW and the vileness at the heart of the racing industry.
An explosive report by the former chief vet of Greyhound Racing NSW rocked Australia in July 2024 with harrowing allegations of cruelty.
The “Brittan Communique” followed weeks of revelations by whistleblowers who made disturbing allegations of corruption, nepotism and animal abuse in greyhound racing.
NSW greyhound racing was marketed as the “gold standard” in animal welfare. As we suspected, this proved to be a mass of misinformation. But still, after all the horrific reports of greyhound abuse, both Labor and the LNP continue to support the cruelty. This must change.
Brittan report part 1 and part 2, split into two parts due to size of file.
Below are just some of the reasons why greyhound racing must end in NSW and across the country.
1. It is unreformable: “barbaric”, “reprehensible”, “unsustainable
Greyhound racing was given a second chance after the live baiting and mass killing of young greyhounds was exposed in 2016.
Yet eight years later the ex-chief vet of Greyhound Racing NSW, Alex Brittan, painted a damning picture of an industry that he alleges has utterly failed to reform.
He stated that “GRNSW’s internal stance and attitude to indentured animal welfare concerns is reprehensible”. Among his key criticisms:
- A huge increase in injured dogs due to more frequent racing
- Large numbers of greyhounds dying in cruel conditions
- The number of greyhounds rehomed greatly inflated “in order to maintain a facade of cleanliness”.
Despite increased regulation and an industry regulator funded with $20m of taxpayer money a year, the NSW greyhound racing industry has shown it cannot be reformed.
Greyhounds continue to be regarded as mere gambling products and brutally exploited to generate profits for betting firms.
2. Rehoming: “unsustainable morass” of suffering
The NSW greyhound racing industry has a huge oversupply problem as they keep breeding too many dogs to find the next winner. Ignoring calls for a breeding limit, they’re breeding greyhounds at an unsustainable rate that inevitably ends in “wastage”.
Alex Brittan alleges:
- Retired dogs were “trapped in the industry” because there were too many dogs.
- Half of the greyhounds that retired each year weren’t rehomed, with between 8,000 – 13,000 greyhounds “shuffled through the industry to paid commercial kennels”.
- GRNSW regards rehoming as an unsolvable problem “that will need to just die.”
- “They are not being rehomed, despite massive PR campaigns to promote the effectiveness of GRNSW rehoming policies.”
These numbers are supported by the industry regulator GWIC who stated in 2022, that there were around 4700 greyhounds who needed homes and 1300 homes available for them and that shortfall was increasing at around 30% a year.
The NSW racing industry refuses to introduce any sort of limit on breeding which has left thousands of discarded dogs with nowhere to go. Whistleblowers have documented appalling conditions at the Greyhounds As Pets facility at Wyee and questionable operation of the “Aussie Mates in the States” export program to the US.
“we’ve got corrugated iron off walls, rusty corrugated iron, you’ve got injuries to greyhounds there. Obviously, you’ve got fences and gates that allow the dogs to get their paws and heads underneath and get squashed underneath it. You’ve got head injuries, leg injuries and a whole range of other injuries.”
Ray Hadley, 2GB
Whistleblowers from the Wyee GAP facilities sent dozens of photographs that showed appalling conditions at Wyee and the dreadful treatment of greyhounds. Read more: Shocking revelations expose vileness of greyhound racing
3. Industrial-scale death and suffering
Greyhound racing causes death and suffering on a massive scale.
NSW was Australia’s deadliest state in 2023, with stewards’ reports showing that 70 dogs died racing.
But the total number of all greyhound deaths is unimaginable. Brittan alleges that the complete number of NSW greyhound deaths in 2023 was 3384, more than three times as many as that publicly reported by the industry regulator GWIC.
Brittan claims that causes of death provided by industry participants commonly included snake bites or “idiopathic” – or unclear – causes which were not investigated.
And despite a $30 million taxpayer-funded track safety scheme, the injury rate is out of control. Brittan alleges that, due to the $60 paid for each dog to race, there had been the greatest increase in the rate of race injuries “in the history of greyhound racing in NSW”. Injuries increased by more than 16 times.
The Brittan report also highlighted the thousands of dogs kept in appalling conditions because they cannot be rehomed: “There are cases of extreme distress, deep claw marks gouged all over the inside of metal cages and recent pools of blood from toe nails that had been ripped off from clawing at the cage door in distress”.
Some of the 42 dogs who died in agony on NSW tracks while GRNSW was having “it’s best year ever”. Another 28 dogs were killed at trials or after being removed from NSW tracks with serious injuries. Read more: Seriously, a desperate and cynical campaign to fool the public and Lethal Tracks report reveals the true nature of the carnage on NSW racetracks
4. Deceitful, untrustworthy, poorly regulated
GRNSW – and its political cheerleaders – have long repeated the mantra that animal welfare in greyhound racing is paramount. The events of 2024 have blown apart those false claims.
The revelations about GAP and the Aussie Mates US program, an internal report on GRNSW corruption that won’t be released to the racing minister, and the Brittan disclosures have shown that GRNSW’s propaganda machine is based on fantasy.
The week before Brittan’s report was tabled in parliament, GRNSW launched a campaign of full-page ads in newspapers proclaiming the “best year ever”. Then CEO Macaulay resigned.
The racing industry’s fondness for exaggeration is also seen in its use of IER reports to mislead the Australian community about the economic contribution of the racing industry. The recent NSW IER report also exaggerated the number of people employed in the NSW racing industry by 13 times. Read the NSW Smoke and Mirrors report to see how the NSW government uses economic misinformation to mislead the community.
The NSW racing industry also markets greyhound racing as “family friendly entertainment”. This is a cynical and dangerous ploy to distract the community from the animal suffering and encourage the next generation of problem gamblers. The NSW greyhound racing industry allows children as young as 12 to join the racing industry.
And where is the regulator in all these animal welfare scandals and failings?
