Channel 10’s current affairs program, The Project, aired an expose on the greyhound racing industry and its failure around dog welfare and rehoming on 28 April 2022.
The episode was also posted on The Project’s Facebook page, garnering 96K views and 1K shares with 1.3K likes and 1.4K comments.
The story was the biggest on The Project for the week, with the overwhelming majority of comments supporting banning greyhound racing. Many commenters labelled the industry cruel, greedy and abusive. Many viewers stressed that “it needs to be banned”.
The Project revealed that 47 dogs had died racing during the broadcast. They also highlighted that a high number of falls lead to greyhounds being traumatised even after their racing days.
Industry fails rehoming requirements.
The story featured Bennie and Zoe, two greyhounds who had come to rescue Gumtree Greys in a state of physical and veterinary neglect. Since arriving at Gumtree Greys, Bennie’s vet bills have amounted to $12,000. Zoe was rejected by the industry rehoming arm, GAP, for a broken toe.
CPG said many greyhounds are being surrendered to independent rescue organisations in neglected conditions. This is despite the rehoming requirements placed on the industry, including the need for the greyhounds to be socialised, introduced to a home environment and assessed by a vet.
The Project highlighted the results of a CPG survey which showed that 50% of rescues reported that greyhounds are surrendered with signs of stress, poor teeth, pannus, fleas and worms. In addition, two-thirds of the returns said that almost all the greyhounds resigned to them had many untreated injuries.
The deadly impact of overbreeding
Julia Cockram, Gumtree Greys CEO and spokesperson for CPG, said that the industry breeds six times as many greyhounds as it can rehome and that 31% of dogs are deemed unrehomeable by the industry-run GAPs. She stressed the need for GAPs to be independent of the industry.
Ms Cockram went on to say that small independent rescues are fearful of reporting neglect as they faced a backlash from industry participants who threatened to kill the dogs instead of surrendering them.