Instead Of Banning Greyhound Racing, The NSW Government Is Now Pouring $500,000 Into Prizes
A stunning backflip.
Well, not only has the NSW government reversed its greyhound racing ban, it’s now pouring your taxpayer dollars into prize money for the “world’s richest greyhound event”, coming to Sydney on October 20.
Seriously — just today, fittingly named NSW Minister for Racing Paul Toole put out a cheerful media release announcing that NSW will soon host a greyhound racing event known as the Million Dollar Chase, featuring a staggering $1.7 million dollars in prize money. The NSW Government will be chipping in $500,000 of that $1.7 million.
That’s a pretty extraordinary backflip, given that just two years ago the very same government banned greyhound racing altogether, calling the sport’s association with animal cruelty and abuse “abhorrent”. The government backflipped on said ban only a few months after passing it, following pressure from the racing industry, but they’ve gone a step further today in actively funding the sport with taxpayers’ money.
In July 2016, the NSW government banned greyhound racing, premier Mike Baird calling an 800-page report into the sport "chilling" and "horrific"
today, July 2018, the NSW government announced it would give $500,000 of taxpayer money to a greyhound series https://t.co/mWwEDQ3KFi
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) July 31, 2018
Toole announced today that entry fees from races at the event will include a donation to not-for-profit organisation Greyhounds as Pets, which encourages people to adopt greyhounds and provide a safer environment for them. He also claimed that “the Million Dollar Chase will highlight the industry’s renewed focus on animal welfare and high standards of integrity”, but greyhound advocates are rubbishing that claim.
“It is honestly quite sickening that the NSW Government is rewarding the greyhound racing industry with hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars when they have made zero effort to stop the killing of greyhounds once they cease earning a profit,” NSW Greens MP Dr. Mehreen Faruqi said in response to the announcement.
“Barely a week goes by without deaths on tracks, people being charged with severe animal cruelty and neglect or someone being pinged for doping their dog. The greyhound racing industry is behaving with impunity and the Liberal/National Government is rewarding this.”
“In just the last two weeks, there have been seven deaths and 91 injuries on racing tracks. People would be horrified to know that their tax dollars are propping this gambling industry, rife with animal cruelty.”
Barely a week goes by without deaths on tracks, people being charged with severe animal cruelty or someone being pinged for doping their dog. The greyhound racing industry is behaving with impunity & the Liberal/National Government is rewarding it #nswpol https://t.co/yh2NsEj9Rr
— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) July 31, 2018
Those stats on greyhound abuse aren’t an exaggeration — all the available evidence shows the industry continues to be plagued with the kind of animal abuse that triggered the ban in the first place. See for example the discovery, just two weeks ago, of a mass greyhound grave and badly malnourished dogs on the property of a registered greyhound trainer.
The numbers Dr. Faruqi mentioned, regarding deaths and injuries in the past week, are also solid — they come from the stewards’ reports produced by the racing industry, which you can see for yourself here.
Seems like an absolute joke for a government that pretty recently acknowledged this behaviour as “abhorrent” to now be funding that very same behaviour, but here we are. Who even needs to watch the races when you can just sit back and observe this stunning policy backflip?