Letter to the Editor: Please no more greyhound articles

DEAR News Of The Area,

WE have been reading this paper since its launch and enjoy the local news content.

However a fortnight ago we were in disbelief that the paper chose to publish an article promoting greyhound racing at Taree as a sport article.

Greyhound racing is not a sport, it is an industry.

An industry that the former chief vet described as “an unsustainable morass of exploitation and suffering”.

The new track at Taree featured in the article was funded by $5 million dollars of taxpayer funds.

The majority of taxpayers would, I believe, give preference to $5 million dollars being spent on the local health and education systems, roads or other community infrastructure that would benefit the whole community.

Greyhound racing was recently banned in New Zealand and in the last few weeks, the Tasmanian government announced that it too was phasing the industry out due to the systemic animal welfare issues.

Greyhound racing is based upon an industry that breeds thousands of dogs that never make it to the track at all or are ever rehomed as pets.

Of those that can run fast enough for a while, thousands are injured and killed each year, year after year.

There is no accountability for those dogs that go ‘missing’ from the system, those euthanised for treatable injuries (let alone those with catastrophic injuries), healthy dogs killed simply because they are no longer of ‘use’, dogs given away on Gumtree, or those dogs left abandoned at the pound.

The charities that rescue, rehabilitate and rehome a fraction of the greyhounds churned out by the industry every year, are buckling under the pressure of providing care for the dogs that the industry has walked away from.

The industry’s attitude to all these issues is a ‘nothing to see here, look the other way, sweep it all under the carpet’ attitude with articles like was published last week.

The greyhound racing industry is a vile, cruel, out-dated and inhumane industry that only exists because the state government, in the thrall of the gambling companies, props it up with taxpayer funds.

The real story that should have been in the paper was how this industry has been allowed to continue.

The truth and fact is that if any other breed of dog was subjected to the exploitation and cruelty that is inflicted upon greyhounds, simply because of the fact that they can run fast, the whole industry would be deemed unacceptable and cease to exist.

Please NOTA, no more articles on greyhound racing.

Yours sincerely,
R MCKAY,
Bonny Hills.