80 Racing Greyhounds Have Died On Tracks This Year, So Why Is The Government Still Funding This?
One dog died every 2.3 days.
A new report has revealed that 78 greyhounds have been killed on racetracks in the first half of 2022, thus proving that the regulations in the industry are clearly not going far enough to keep animals safe.
According to a new report from the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds (CPG), 78 racing deaths and 5091 racing injuries were recorded between January and June 2022, resulting in an average of one dog dying every 2.3 days. And those are just the statistics for the injuries and deaths on the track itself.
CPG director Kylie Field says the deaths are a result of unsafe tracks that the industry has no interest in changing.
“Australian racetracks are inherently unsafe for greyhounds and cause immense suffering on a daily basis. Three-quarters of fatal incidents occur where the tracks curve, but the racing industry shows no interest in transferring racing to safer straight tracks,” said Field.
“Eighty percent of deaths were euthanasia for leg injuries, even though leg injuries are usually treatable. This shows just how cruel the racing industry is,” she said.
The tracks with the most deaths this year were Geelong (7), Angle Park (6), Ipswich (5), Gawler (4) and Wentworth Park (4).
The Racing Industry Is Being Bankrolled By The Government
Despite the obvious animal welfare issues present in the sport, greyhound racing (and racing more broadly) continues to be showered in government funding.
The most deaths recorded this year come from Victoria’s Geelong racetrack, despite the Andrews Government’s million-dollar handout back in 2019 — which came with the introduction of a new code of practice that was designed to keep animals safe. Spoiler: it has not.
Not to mention, the $144 million given to the Victorian Racing Industry Fund between 2015 and 2022 alone.
A similar trend can be observed in New South Wales, where the government boasted a $25 million investment in the future of greyhound racing last June. This is despite 64 deaths in the state last year, with an additional 23 already recorded this year.
Meanwhile, the Palaszczuk Government up in Queensland splashed a whopping $39 million in 2019 on “the nation’s most advanced greyhound racing tracks”.
The Tracks Are Only Part Of The Issue
In addition to the obvious issue of deaths on the track, Field stressed that greyhounds’ life outside of racing has its own string of problems.
“Away from the tracks, an emerging crisis in rehoming greyhounds is the result of the industry breeding six times more dogs than it can rehome after racing. Other welfare problems include unnecessary euthanasia, over-racing, lack of reporting and transparency, and no whole-of-life tracking,” she said.
As it currently stands, greyhounds are only registered when they start racing — usually at 16 months old. With no requirement to register pups at birth, there is no accountability for what happens to the dogs that don’t make it to the track, we simply do not know the extent of the problem because there is no requirement to register.
Additionally, the industry has been accused of obscuring data and listing deceased dogs as “retired” in the Victorian database, thus making it even harder to grasp how big the problem actually is.
The Report Can’t Even Keep Up With The Deaths
An additional two greyhounds — Hello I’m Texas and Meeka’s Charm have died since the report was written, bringing the total deaths year-to-date to 80.