Ray Hadley and Vikki Campion confirm impact of greyhound advocates

While Dennis Anderson was dying, media figures Ray Hadley and Vikki Campion attacked CPG.

Both expressed dissatisfaction with the media attention received by greyhound welfare advocates in 2021.

Who gave them this media analysis? That would be fascinating to know. Greyhound Racing NSW may have felt cheated because they had undertaken a year-long paid article campaign in Australian Community Media magazines.

While Dennis, the president of CPG, was in palliative care, Campion wrote a column in the Daily Telegraph about “anti-greyhound propaganda driven by a single greyhound protest group and cheered on by the ABC.”

“Over a year, more than 40 individual ABC presenters devoted airtime to shutting down greyhounds, interviewing the Coalition of Protection of Greyhounds,” she complained.

Thank you very much, Vikki. Dennis would be pleased. Unfortunately, CPG’s small group of volunteers cannot afford media analysis, unlike the multibillion-dollar racing industry.

You claim that “commercial media cared about rehoming greyhounds,” but you may be unaware that GRNSW has a commercial relationship with the racing industry.

Ray Hadley had a similar outburst on his syndicated radio show two days after Dennis died.

He’d suddenly been informed of CPG, and the “bloke who runs this is the self-appointed national president; I’ve never heard of him, Dennis Anderson”.

And Ray was irritated because Dennis’ media coverage “was so high in volume over a year that he was the number one voice on the topic of greyhound racing anywhere in the Australian media.”

This is a fitting epitaph for Dennis, who was a dedicated champion for greyhounds. He never knew.

Perhaps there was so much attention because nearly 200 greyhounds died while racing on Australian tracks last year, and Australians adore their dogs. And, because it’s such a heinous industry, you can only get positive coverage if you pay for it, effectively turning it into propaganda.

Dennis, by the way, was not a self-appointed president. Wing Commander Anderson was the ideal candidate for the role, with three decades of service in the Royal Australian Air Force.

He’d spent his career serving and protecting Australians, only to discover the agony that greyhounds are forced to endure. So he tried to intervene and fought the industry with everything he had.

Let’s hope that Ray and Vikki are up to date on the latest developments. This month, the Herald Sun, Triple M Eastern Victoria, ABC Perth, Adelaide Advertiser, The Hills to Hawkesbury Community News, Bay 93.9 Radio, and InDaily Adelaide all ran stories about greyhound suffering. So there’s a nice mix of media here. Sadly, the PR team for greyhound racing may be too embarrassed to share the coverage this time.

Dennis, on the other hand, will be cheering on the hounds from across the rainbow bridge.

The image depicts Dennis with CPG team member Leo, to whom we also bid farewell in 2021. Dennis’ tribute which includes hundreds of messages from the greyhound welfare community, can be found here.