Jetpets has joined Qantas and Air Canada in GRNSW’s export program to rehome ex-racing greyhounds in North America.
The Drake Inquiry called on GRNSW to “immediately halt the USA Rehoming Program and not engage in any other overseas export of greyhounds.”
At least six dogs had died in transportation, a death rate ten times higher than GRNSW’s target racetrack death rate. There was no monitoring of the program.
Drake added that: “The risk of death or injury during transport, and the stress associated with international relocation, cannot be justified in the absence of strong welfare assurances and a clear benefit to the greyhounds involved.”
Both GRNSW and racing minister David Harris ignored the Acting Commissioner’s recommendation.
Qantas and Jetpets also took Australian greyhounds to die at the Canidrome track in Macau, where on average a dog was killed every day because they were too slow. There were eight kennels with 70 dogs in each, and no rehoming.
Most dogs at the Macau death camp were from Australia
As GREY2K said: “Dogs did not survive the Canidrome. Most were destroyed in less than three years and replaced by more imports from Australia.”
Macau was blacklisted in 2013. Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi showed that Jetpets had sent almost 300 greyhounds to Macau, China, and Hong Kong during 2013-2015.
She said: “I think many people would be shocked and disgusted to learn that these companies that claim to care about animals made money out of sending dogs to near certain death in China and Macau.”
Jetpets is also involved in the Racing2Rehome export program, taking greyhounds from Victoria to North America.
And let’s remember some of the Aussie racing people involved in the Macau death trade: Michael Abbot (charged with sending 120 dogs), “king” Paul Wheeler (guilty of exporting 10 dogs), and the 179 owners and trainers charged by greyhound racing authorities – never named.
Additional comments by Acting GWIC Commissioner Lea Drake
“The industry for which the animals were bred for financial gain cannot ‘offshore’ the responsibility of caring for those animals.”
“Once greyhounds leave Australia, they fall outside the protective reach of NSW animal welfare legislation, and there is no guarantee they are being treated humanely or placed in suitable homes.”
“unlike a domestic adoption where maltreatment of an animal could be reported and prosecuted under NSW law, the greyhounds sent overseas have no protections and no oversight.”
“There is no visibility of what becomes of these exported dogs.”
“The absence of a formal monitoring system mirrors similar concerns regarding a lack of visibility once greyhounds are transferred to the NSW Companion Animals Register.”
“The Act should be amended to require GRNSW to use domestic adoption pathways to rehome greyhounds.”
Links:
More on the Drake Inquiry into Greyhound Racing NSW
The Guardian -2018 Apr11 – export-of-590-greyhounds-to-macau-went-ahead-despite-industry-ban
The Guardian – 2017 Nov10 – australian-greyhound-owners-fined-over-exports-to-cruel-conditions-in-china
The Guardian – 2018 May05 – greyhound-racing-nsw-board-member-charged-over-unauthorised-export-of-dog