The Gosford racing club held an Easter Family Fun Night on 8 April to “kick off the school holidays with FRIDAY NIGHT RACING”, where people would “WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN! WIN!”. All kids’ activities were free.
Two dogs were killed at the “fun event”.
- The story of Black Eyeliner is heartbreaking. Three days ago, she fell heavily in her first race, but the vet gave her the all-clear. In her second race on 8 April, she fell again and suffered a compound fracture. She was killed two days before her second birthday.
- Later in the evening, Snoozy Sioux crashed with other dogs at the straight back turn and fell. Suffering a fractured humerus bone, she was killed by the on-track vet. She was three years old.
In its usual practice of censoring incidents of cruelty, Greyhound Racing NSW has removed the race videos from its official website. Two other dogs were injured, one seriously. You can read the latest example of race video manipulation here.
This is no fun for animals and children.
The greyhound racing industry markets greyhound racing as family-friendly entertainment, despite the violent nature of the falls suffered by the dogs. Also, the sight of them being carried away to being killed. And we know that kids are being encouraged to become the next generation of gamblers.
Would a ‘safe’ track kill two dogs in one night?
Gosford received 82mm of rain on the event day, and that morning, staff were “repairing minor ruts from heavy rain”. However, the club had “no concerns at the moment with racing set to go ahead tonight”. They also boasted that the activities were “rain friendly”. Not for the greyhounds.
Racing tracks of Gosford and Newcastle have been promised $5.2m of taxpayer money for track upgrades to meet so-called minimum safety standards. So, if the Gosford track doesn’t meet minimum safety standards and it’s killing two dogs in one night, we need to ask the Racing Minister Kevin Anderson why it hasn’t been closed down.