GRNZ were disappointed to learn that the SPCA has launched a campaign advocating for the end of commercial greyhound
racing in New Zealand.
Many people are aware that our industry has been under review since the Robertson Review was published in September
2021. This review is currently ongoing and GRNZ will be submitting its final progress report to the Minister for Racing
in mid-December. It would be premature for any decisions to be made prior to then.
GRNZ has made significant inroads in the spaces of animal welfare and track safety in recent years, and has made
exponential progress in the past year alone.
Euthanasias of greyhounds for no reason other than them no longer being competitive at a racetrack has now been entirely
eradicated.
We acknowledge that injuries still exist, but we are constantly working on ways to prevent, reduce and mitigate the
effects of injuries.
The Rehabilitation to Rehoming Programme continues to be our gold standard rehabilitation programme for greyhounds who
sustain raceday injuries. This is a GRNZ-funded programme, where greyhounds who are injured at the track are
rehabilitated back to health before they enter the rehoming programme.
In April 2022, we introduced a Preferred Box Draw Pilot for low grade greyhounds, where greyhounds are assigned their
boxes according to their early racing traits (rail, straight, wide), and early evidence suggests this is effective at
reducing the rates of serious injuries. Preferred Box Draw racing is an Australasian first.
We also continue to make significant investments in track safety and infrastructure. For GRNZ, animal welfare is
paramount, which is why we are about to commence construction of our first straight track in New Zealand. This track
will be located in Wanganui and we anticipate it will open in April 2023.
Additionally, GRNZ has recently employed a new National Track Manager, who is a leading track authority in Australasia.
This person will oversee all greyhound tracks in New Zealand, including the training of track curators, thus ensuring
the safest possible presentation of our tracks.
Further, the GRNZ Animal Health and Welfare Committee and Serious Injury Review Committee play integral roles with
regards to injury prevention, reduction and mitigation.
Since 1 March 2022, all registered racing greyhounds have been required to be vaccinated, and puppies have also been
required to be vaccinated since 1 September 2022. Again, New Zealand is ahead of its Australian counterparts in this
area.
The love and care that our licensed persons have for their greyhounds is second to none, and the fact that 521
greyhounds were rehomed through the Great Mates Rehoming Programme last season is testament to how well socialised these
beautiful animals are. In addition, when our greyhounds enter the Great Mates Rehoming Programme, there are no time
pressures or constraints around when greyhounds must be adopted. Every greyhound is given the opportunity to live out
the remainder of its life as a pet at the end of its racing career.
GRNZ does not have anything to hide.
All raceday stewards reports are available on our website, and all of our quarterly reports are also published on our
website. Our quarterly reports contain greater details around all of the improvements that our industry has made and
continues to make.
These quarterly reports also include all injury statistics, along with raceday and non-raceday euthanasias and mortality
information. Conversely, we note that the New Zealand SPCA does not publish their euthanasia rates anywhere. The RSPCA
Australia, however, does this annually.
In summary, we consider it entirely inappropriate that a charity is spending significant time, money and resources on
this campaign - especially when a robust independent review process is already underway.